Michael Sukkar MP

Federal Member for Deakin
Shadow Minister for Social Services
Shadow Minister for the NDIS
Shadow Minister for Housing
Shadow Minister for Homelessness
image description

NEW DATA GIVES GREATER INSIGHTS INTO AUSTRALIA’S ECONOMY



THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister for Housing
Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 15 October 2021

NEW DATA GIVES GREATER INSIGHTS INTO AUSTRALIA’S ECONOMY

New official data being released today will give Australians greater insights into key sectors of the economy.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will today publish the first instalment of a new monthly economic indicator, looking at business turnover.

“There has never been a greater need for timely, accurate data on Australia’s economy than now as businesses and the government plan the recovery ahead,” Minister Sukkar said.

“This new economic data will provide businesses and governments with more timely information to enable them to do this.

“The data released today will look at business turnover and the ABS will also be developing new indicators on household spending and employee earnings.”

The Australian Government has invested $17m in the ABS to develop a number of important indicators using big data sources including Single Touch Payroll (STP) and Business Activity Statement (BAS) data collected by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and aggregated de-identified banks’ transactions data.

Australian Statistician Dr David Gruen said the new monthly data sees the ABS continue to innovate to meet Australia’s data needs.

“Importantly, by harnessing existing sources of information, we have been able to securely produce a large amount of new data without any more work on behalf of businesses and other organisations,” Dr Gruen said.