Retail sales grew nicely in August and car sales rose again in September as we saw more evidence of a solid pace of economic activity.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday that retail spending rose by a faster than expected 0.4% in August, thanks to a rebound in spending in department stores.
Total retail spending rose to $25.1 billion in August, from $25.01 billion in July, beating market forecasts of a 0.2% rise. But in trend terms, the annual rate slowed to 2.6% from 2.7 in July and 4% at the start of this year.
Spending in department stores rose 3.5% in August after dropping 5.8% in July, and sales at cafes, restaurants and takeaway venues again has a solid month, rising 1.2%.
There were falls in other retailing (-0.6%) and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (down 0.4%).
The Bureau said that in seasonally adjusted terms, there were rises in Victoria (0.7%), NSW (up 0.5%), Queensland (0.7%), South Australia (0.4%) and the ACT (also up 0.7%). There were falls in Western Australia (-0.5%), Northern Territory (-0.5%) and Tasmania ( down 0.1%).
And sales of new cars rose for a second month in September, thanks to another solid month for sales of SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) and commercial vehicles, such as so-called tradie trucks like the Toyota Hi-Lux.
Yesterday’s Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ VFACTS report showed 102,696 new vehicles were sold in September, up 1.3% on the same month last year. Both months had the same number of selling days.
Sales were 8.2% higher than in August, (There is no seasonal adjustment of the figures).
The Chamber said sales for the first nine months of 2016 totalled 887,076, 2.8% ahead of the same period last year.
Total sales for 2015 were a record 1.16 million units, so the industry is on track for a new peak (even with Ford closing down shortly).
Sales of light commercial vehicles jumped 17.9% on September last year, the fastest monthly rate for a while and coming on top of solid rises in preceding months. They are up 11.2% year to date.
Sales of SUVs jumped 6.8% (and are up nearly 10% for the year so far), while passenger vehicles continued their decline as buyers move to SUVs, especially the smaller soft road town/city models.
Toyota remained the market leader in September with a 16.3% share, followed by Mazda with 11.7%, Hyundai (9.1%), Holden (8.3%) and Ford (7.1%).
The top-selling vehicle for September 2016 was the Mazda3 with 3,491, followed by the Toyota Corolla (3,423 sales), Toyota Hilux (3,209 sales), Ford Ranger (2,903), and Hyundai i30 (2,741).
