Australia’s company gross operating profits rise much more than forecast in Q2

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported on Monday the company gross operating profits (CGOP) in Australia jumped 7.1 percent q-o-q (seasonally adjusted) in the second quarter of 2021, following a revised 0.6 percent q-o-q drop in the previous quarter (originally a 0.3 percent q-o-q fall). This represented the first advance in profits of private companies in the last three quarters and the biggest gain since the second quarter of 2020. Economists had expected a 3.0 percent q-o-q rise.

According to the report, profits rose in administrative and support services (+19.9 percent q-o-q), mining (+18.4 percent q-o-q), transport, postal and warehousing (+7.9 percent q-o-q), information and communication (+5.5 percent q-o-q), financial and insurance (+4.0 percent q-o-q), professional scientific and technical services (+0.5 percent q-o-q) as well as other services (+29.9 percent q-o-q). These gains, however, were partially offset by declines in profits in accommodation and food services (-19.8 percent q-o-q), rental, hiring and real estate services (-6.0 percent q-o-q), retail trade (-5.6 percent q-o-q), construction (-5.5 percent q-o-q), manufacturing (-3.2 percent q-o-q), wholesale trade (-3.2 percent q-o-q) and utilities (-1.0 percent q-o-q).