A spike in gambling in Australia prevented business turnover from falling into negative territory in May.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, released today, showed business turnover in trend terms rose 0.2 percent.
ABS Head of Business statistics Robert Ewing said the pattern of recent months had continued, with the business turnover 13-industry aggregate remaining flat for May.
“In seasonally adjusted terms, most industries either fell or were flat which resulted in the 13-industry aggregate falling 0.6 percent,” Mr Ewing said.
“Softening the fall, we saw larger rises in arts and recreation, up 2.8 percent, and information media and telecommunications, up 2.6 percent.”
Mr Ewing said the arts and recreation growth was driven by an increase in gambling activity, while information media and telecommunications was driven by the publishing (except internet and music publishing) subdivision, as demand for generative artificial intelligence continued to grow.
He said compared to May 2023, turnover was higher for 11 of the 13 industries included in the indicator.
The industries that saw the biggest annual rises were construction and information media and telecommunications (both +6.4 percent).
Mining had the largest annual fall (-5.5 percent).
