Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have shown that consumers are still wary of spending, cutting back on discretionary items, with growth worse than expected.
Australia’s retail turnover increased by 0.2 per cent in September 2019 to $27.6 billion, with the expected forecast being a 0.5 per cent bump in growth for the retail sector.
Overall for the third quarter, Australia’s total retail spend fell by -0.1 per cent to $79.8 billion.
Ben James, ABS director of quarterly economy wide surveys, considered the results as “mixed”.
“Rises were seen in other retailing (0.8 per cent), cafes, restaurants and takeaway services (0.6 per cent), and food retailing (0.1 per cent).”
“These rises were slightly offset by a fall in clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-0.5 per cent) and department stores (-0.2 per cent). Household goods (0.0 per cent) was relatively unchanged,” he said.
The ABS’ seasonally adjusted figures saw gains in NSW (0.3 per cent), Western Australia (0.7 per cent), Tasmania (1.0 per cent), South Australia (0.2 per cent), the ACT (0.1 per cent), and the Northern Territory (0.1 per cent). Victoria (0.0 per cent) was relatively unchanged. Queensland (-0.1 per cent) fell in seasonally adjusted terms in September 2019.
Online sales
Online retail turnover contributed 6.3 per cent to total retail turnover in original terms in September 2019 compared with September 2018’s online retail turnover proportion of 5.6 per cent.
Online retailers tend to have greater swings than the rest of the retail market, according to NAB’s Online Retail Sales Index, which saw 1.8 per cent growth month-on-month.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster said, “After a considerably weak mid-year period, online retail sales continued to grow in September, albeit at a more moderate pace than the significant growth rate recorded in August.”
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