Shift Business Index
April 2023
Shift uses transaction data from a representative sample of business in Australia to gain insights into their financial and operational performance.
YoY: 85
YoY: 94
YoY: 98
YoY: 106
Key Takeaways
- Over the holiday interrupted April period, sales, supplier, and wage spend eased while liquidity increased, following strong sales performance over March.
- Liquidity within the Retail Trade sector advanced for the first time in 2023, rising by 2 points over April (+3.8% MoM, -25.3% YoY), in the wake of an 8-point growth in sales over March.
- Liquidity within the Manufacturing sector also expanded, up 5 points (+8.1% MoM, -25% YoY).
Liquidity Index
Liquidity in the Construction sector increased by 1 point over April (+1.4% MoM, -20.4% YoY). In contrast, Hospitality liquidity retreated by 2 points over April (-3.9% MoM, -37.6% YoY).
Key Measures
Sales
The Sales Index tracks changes in sales to measure business performance. The Sales Index fell by 12 points in April (-11.2% MoM, + 1.13% YoY).
Over the April period which included less business days than other months, sales dropped in the Transport sector by 11 points, while in the Construction industry sales retreated by 20. Transport down 11 points (-8.7% MoM, +22.6% YoY), Construction down 20 points (-16.1% MoM, +18.1% YoY).
Hospitality sales were down 9 points (-7.4% MoM, +2.2% YoY).
Key Measures – Business Costs
(Supplier Spend)
Supplier spend tracks business costs and expenditures on goods and services, material and equipment, utilities, fuel and insurance.
Supplier Spend dropped by 12 points over April (-10.9% MoM, +0% YoY).
Key Measures - Business Costs
(Wage Spend)
Wage spend tracks business spend on wages and salary payments. Wage spend lightened by 5 points over April (-4.1% MoM, + 9.4% YoY).
About the data
Shift Business Index
The Business Index is baselined to February 2021, using six months of average transactions as the denominator.
The Index is calculated by taking a representative sample of businesses from around Australia varied by size, industry and location and looking at their credit transactions across all account types (e.g. transaction, savings and credit card).