Seven industries across Australia, including mining and retail, have driven a 0.7 per cent fall in seasonally adjusted business turnover in August 2024, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed.
ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said the fall in business turnover was predominately driven by a 3.5 per cent plummet in mining turnover month-on-month, which is also the only industry recording a year-on-year turnover drop of 5.9 per cent.
“This came as oil and gas extraction businesses reported lower turnover after a strong result in July. Iron ore mining, which continues to be impacted by price falls, also contributed to the lower turnover,” Ewing said.
“The other notable drop was from information media and telecommunications, down 2.9 per cent. The publishing subdivision led this fall after reporting strong results through the first half of 2024.”
Retail and wholesale industries came third and fourth respectively in monthly turnover drops, with each falling 0.6 per cent.
For retail, it is the third monthly fall in business turnover, with the category currently trending downwards according to ABS data. Between August 2023 to August 2024, retail business turnover was up by just 0.4 per cent, the lowest yearly lift ahead of the major fall in mining year-on-year.
The largest industry rises month-on-month were in other services - which include hairdressers, mechanics and the like - up 1.5 per cent, followed by construction (1.3 per cent), and electricity, gas, water and waste services (1.2 per cent).
The 13-industry aggregate showed business turnover rising 0.1 per cent in trend terms.
Industries that saw the biggest annual rises were electricity, gas, water and waste services (17.6 per cent) and information media and telecommunications (8.6 per cent).