Australian retail sales see dramatic fall in December

Australia’s retail sales report for December has missed expectations, coming in flat against expectations for an increase of 0.5%.

It was the smallest monthly increase since July 2015 where sales decreased by 0.1%.

Over the year sales grew by 4.19% to $24.759 billion, a slight deceleration on the 4.3% pace seen in the 12 months to November.

Image Credit ABS / Business Insider Australia
Image Credit ABS / Business Insider Australia

According to the ABS, sales increased in food retailing (0.8%), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (1.1%) and department stores (0.1%) in seasonally adjusted terms.

Offsetting those increases, sales fell for household goods retailing (-1.0%), other retailing (-0.9%) and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.5%).

Despite the large fall in 1% fall in household goods sales, the category still recorded the fastest annual percentage growth at 6.3%. This was followed by clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing and Department store sales at 4.7% and 4.6% respectively.

Eating out seems to falling out of favour with consumers as sales in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food outlets recorded the slowest annual increase at 2.9%. Food retailing, the largest category by dollar spend, saw sales increase by 3.7% from 12 months earlier.

Image Credit Business Insider Australia
Image Credit Business Insider Australia

Like the performance by category, turnover across the nation was mixed.

Sales increased in the Australian Capital Territory (2.4%), Queensland (0.2%), New South Wales (0.1%), South Australia (0.2%) and the Northern Territory (0.3%), but fell in in Western Australia (-0.6%), Victoria (-0.1%) and Tasmania (-0.6%).

For the December quarter retail volumes, adjusted for price movements, increased by 0.6%, the same level recorded in Q3 but below market forecasts for a gain of 0.9%.

Originally from Business Insider Australia


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