Business indicators soft for GDP

Monday, 4 March 2013

The ABS has released its December quarter business indicators series and the two main inputs to GDP, company profits and inventories both came in soft.

Company profits fell 1% for the quarter and 7.6% for the year. Inventories will detract slightly to growth up 0.2% for the quarter and 2.9% for the year but down marginally on last quarter.

As I’ve said, I’m not one to forecast GDP but unless we get another big deflator most of the inputs look soft, with the exception of net exports.

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.