A scorching December led to a more than 10 percent jump in business turnover in the energy sector that month.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows turnover for the Electricity, gas, water and waste services industry rose by 12.9 percent in December in seasonally adjusted terms.
ABS Head of Business statistics Robert Ewing said turnover in the Electricity supply subdivision alone grew 12.2 percent.
Mr Ewing said this was a result of coal power plant outages and high temperatures on the east coast putting more pressure on electricity supply.
“The turnover index for this subdivision is now only 3.6 points short of the record high reported in August 2022,” he said.
“Other notable industry rises were in Accommodation and food services, which was up 1.9 percent, and Information media and telecommunications, which rose 1.4 percent.”
Mr Ewing said growth in these industries were partially offset by drops in six of the 13 industries.
“The largest falls were in Administrative and support services, down three percent, and Manufacturing, down 1.9 percent.”
He said the 13-industry aggregate showed business turnover rose 0.4 percent in seasonally adjusted terms and 0.3 percent in trend terms.
