Shift Business Index
July 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: 98
YoY: 105
YoY: 110
Key Takeaways
- July saw a substantial rise in the liquidity index, with growth of 7 points (11% MoM, -17.65% YoY). Sales also advanced, up 6 points (11.11% MoM, -17.65% YoY).
- The Manufacturing industry saw sales increase by 7 points (+7.2% MoM, -2% YoY), with Liquidity within the sector growing by 12 points (+20% Mom, -12.7% YoY).
- The historically strong-performing Transport sector saw less notable growth over July, with Sales and Liquidity growing by 2 points each.
Liquidity Index
The Liquidity index is calculated by measuring changes in business liquidity to garner insights into the overall level of business health. The Business Liquidity Index advanced by 7 points in July (11.11% MoM, -17.65% YoY).
- Growth in liquidity was seen across many industries over July, led by an advance in the Manufacturing sector, up 12 points (+20% Mom, -12.7% YoY).
- After falling 6 points in June, the Retail Trade sector recovered to grow 8 points on the liquidity index over July (+13.27% MoM, -12.3% YoY).
- Notably, the usually strong performing Transport sector tempered its liquidity growth over July, up 2 points (1.6% MoM, -3.5% YoY).
Key Measures
Sales
The Sales index tracks changes in sales to measure business performance. Over July, sales grew by 6 points (+5.88% MoM, +10.2%% YoY).
- The Manufacturing and Hospitality sectors both saw increased sales over July. Hospitality grew by 7 points (+5.8% MoM, 7.7% YoY), and the Manufacturing sector also advanced by 7 points (+7.2% MoM, -2% YoY).
- The Transport sector experienced marginal growth over July, rising 2 points (1.6% MoM, +21.4% YoY).
- Following a decline in Sales over June, Retail Trade grew sales by 5 points (+6.2% MoM, +5.1% 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 grew by 3 points over July (+2.8% MoM, + 6.7% YoY).
Key Measures - Business Costs
(Wage Spend)
Wage spend tracks business spend on wages and salary payments. Wage spend increased by 1 point over July (+0.8% MoM, + 8.18% 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).