Shift Business Index
October 2022
Shift uses transaction data from a representative sample of business in Australia to gain insights into their financial and operational performance.
YoY: 104
YoY: 95
YoY: 101
YoY: 102
Key Takeaways
- Both Sales and Liquidity have grown marginally over October, recovering after declines in September.
- Our insights suggest that Supplier Spend and Wage pressure continues for businesses, slowing growth in liquidity.
- The Construction Industry faces falling liquidity, as sector sales slow and costs continue to rise.
Liquidity Index
The Liquidity Index is calculated by measuring changes in business liquidity to garner insights into the overall level of business health.
Liquidity is up 3 points in October, down 23 points YoY.
- Construction liquidity fell 5 points over October. Sales for businesses within the Construction Industry has been in a slight decline since August this year, as the Sales Index fell another point this month.
- Transport Liquidity growth continues to grow – however rising supplier spend is beginning to impact its liquidity.
- On average, Transport businesses within our index group spent 62% of their incoming cash flow on Supplier costs, with 14% of this spend being allocated to fuel costs.
Key Measures
Sales
The Sales Index grew by 1 point over October, led by strong growth within the Hospitality and Manufacturing Industries. Hospitality grew by 5 points to a 17-point increase YoY.
Transport Sales fell by 6 points however, after a high of 129 over September, and ended October up 13-point YoY.
Key Measures – Business Costs
(Supplier Spend)
Suppliers spend tracks business costs and expenditures on goods and services, material and equipment, utilities, fuel and insurance.
Over October, Supplier spend fell by 6 points after a 117 point high in September.
Key Measures - Business Costs
(Wage Spend)
Wage Spend tracks business spend on wages and salary payments.
Wage growth continued in October, spiking particularly in the Hospitality Sector, up 4 points from September and 9 points YoY.
About the data
Shift Business Index
The Business Index was baselined to February 2021, using six months of average transactions as the denominator.
The Index was calculated by taking a representative sample of businesses from around the country (varied by size, industry and location) and looking at their credit transactions across all account types (e.g. transactions, savings and credit cards).
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).