Economic data and research

Economic snapshot reports

• April to June 2025

  Key insights include:

  • The Victorian Tourism Industry Council’s Quarterly Tourism Business Activity and Impact Survey Report June 2025 tells a mixed story for tourism businesses. A decrease in visitors and a softer economy were largely attributed as the reasons for the 38.1% of respondents who reported weaker business activity. Conversely, 34% experienced stronger results, with more than half reporting the improvement due to increasing their digital presence.
  • Most tourism, hospitality and entertainment businesses in Port Phillip continue to perform well, despite the challenges of rising business and staffing costs. For the quarter to June 2025, the monthly average visitor spend to these businesses was $28.79M, a monthly average increase of 7.3% compared to 2024. Spend by visitors accounted for an average of 68.6% of total spend in this category, compared to 31.4% by Port Phillip residents.
  • This quarter, Port Phillip hosted several events during the autumn season, including Citroen Annual Car Show 2025 (St Kilda), Cars and Culture (St Kilda), Circus Rio (Port Melbourne), Dawnbreak Sober Sunrise Silent Disco (Elwood) and The Bloody Long Walk 2025 (St Kilda). Collectively, these events generated an economic impact of $326, 998.
  • The Skyline Ferris Wheel was in Catani Gardens from 9 December 2024 until 17 February 2025 and in South Beach Reserve from 21 February to 18 May 2025, a total of 158 operational days. The total number of patrons for 2024/25 was 39,283, a 15% increase compared to 2023/24.
  • The trimmed mean annual inflation was 2.7% to the June quarter, down from 2.9% to the December quarter. This is the lowest annual trimmed mean inflation rate since the December 2021 quarter. (ABS)
  • The Victorian unemployment rate was 4.6% in March, the highest of any state or territory. The national rate was 4.3%. (ABS, seasonally adjusted)
  • Monthly retail turnover saw Victoria record a 1.2% rise in June 2025, a 0.6% rise in May, and a 0.3% decline in April. Australian retail turnover rose 1.2% in June, 0.5% in May and no change in April. (ABS, seasonally adjusted)

  Full report: Economy snapshot for April to June 2025

• January to March 2025

  Key insights include:

  • Most hospitality sectors in Port Phillip are continuing to trade well despite a challenging environment and low consumer confidence. For the months January to March 2025, compared to 2024, spend per customer and customer count have increased for restaurants. Spend per customer is down for pubs, taverns and bars, but this is offset by an increase in customers, resulting in an overall increase in spend. Both customer count and spend per customer have decreased for cafes.
  • The decline in café spend and number of customers can be attributed to the rise of hybrid work and high living costs. More employees are working at least some of their time from home, have cut back on the takeaway coffee and take their own lunch when they do go to the office. Transactions data from digital payments platform Square shows the number of purchases at food and drink businesses between 7am and 11am on weekdays has dropped to below pre-pandemic levels. It appears that consumers are cutting back on nonessential purchases, but still spending on things that are important to them, like dining with friends and family.
  • This quarter, Port Phillip hosted several events during the peak summer season, including St Kilda Blues Fest, Pride March, and other major events. Collectively (excluding St Kilda Festival), these events generated an economic impact of $48,814,300. Compared to the previous summer events season, this represents an increase of 110%.
  • The trimmed mean annual inflation was 2.9% in the March quarter, down from 3.3% in the December quarter. This is the lowest annual trimmed mean inflation rate since the December 2021 quarter. (ABS)
  • The Victorian unemployment rate was 4.4% in March, the highest of any state or territory. The national rate was 4.1%. (ABS, seasonally adjusted)
  • Monthly retail turnover saw Victoria record a 0.6% rise in March 2025, no change for February, and a 0.8% rise in January. Australian retail turnover rose 0.3% in March, 0.2% in February and 0.4% in January. (ABS, seasonally adjusted)

  Full report: Economy snapshot for January to March 2025

• October to December 2024

  Key insights include:

  • The annual trimmed mean inflation was 3.2 percent in the December quarter, the lowest in three years, down from 3.6 percent in the September quarter (ABS).
  • The unemployment rate (Victoria) was 4.4 percent in December, the highest of any state or territory. The national rate was 4 percent (ABS, seasonally adjusted).
  • Job vacancies (Victoria) decreased by 2.2 percent in the three months to November 2024, following a 5.3 percent fall over the quarter to May 2024. Western Australia was the only other state or territory to record a fall (-0.1%) (ABS).
  • Retail turnover rose in all states and territories. Victoria recorded a 0.7 percent rise in retail turnover in October and 0.8 percent in November. Australian retail turnover rose 0.5 percent in October and 0.8 percent in November (ABS, seasonally adjusted)
  • "Black Friday sales events proved once again to be a big hit, with widespread discounting and higher spending across all retail industries” (Robert Ewing, ABS, November 2024).
  • Household spending in November rose in all states and territories expect for Tasmania and the ACT. The strongest increases were in Queensland (+0.7 percent) and Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia (+0.5 percent) (ABS, seasonally adjusted).

  Full report: Economy snapshot for October to December 2024