Shift Business Index
March 2023
Shift uses transaction data from a representative sample of business in Australia to gain insights into their financial and operational performance.
YoY: 82
YoY: 101
YoY: 103
YoY: 104
Key Takeaways
- Sales growth continued over March, rising 13 points. This growth was most prominent in the Construction and Transport industries, which both increased sales by 20 points.
- Following three months of decline, sales within the Hospitality sector rose by 9 points (+9% MoM, + 7% YoY) over March. In contrast, Liquidity continued to fall, down 5 points (-9% MoM, -39% YoY).
- In the Manufacturing industry, sales increased by 12 points over March (+14% MoM, -10% YoY). Liquidity within the sector fell by 6 points (-9% MoM, -31% YoY).
Liquidity Index
- Liquidity in the Transport sector grew by 3 points over March (+3% MoM, +1% YoY). Sales performance within the industry has been strong over 2023, however costs are still high, with supplier spend for Transport businesses rising 14 points this month.
- In the Retail Trade sector, liquidity fell by 6 points (-8% MoM, -22% YoY), with Supplier spend rising by 9 points (+10% MoM, -8% YoY).
Key Measures
Sales
- Construction sales grew 20 points over March (+19% MoM, + 34% YoY), with Transport sales increasing by 20 points (+16% MoM, +27% YoY).
- Sales within the Retail Trade industry grew by 8 points this month (+9% MoM, -8% 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 10 points over March (+ 9.7% MoM, + 6.5% YoY). The Transport sector continues to experience the largest increase in supplier costs, rising 14 points over March (+14% MoM, +2% YoY).
In the Hospitality sector, spend rose 11 points (+12% MoM, +4% YoY).
Key Measures - Business Costs
(Wage Spend)
Wage spend tracks business spend on wages and salary payments. Wage spend grew 4 points over March (+3.4% MoM, + 16.4% YoY).
On an industry level, the Construction industry had the highest wage spend increase over March, up 6 points (+5.6% MoM, + 4.7% 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).