Retailers suffered another bleak month in January, with a weak start for 2019 after the surprise slide in Christmas sales.
Retail sales rose 0.1% (seasonally adjusted) in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Thursday, after December’s 0.4% slump.
Economists had inexplicably been forecasting a rise of 0.3%, which sees too optimistic with all the weakness in consumer spending quite evident.
Thursday’s figures showed consumers chose to eat out and spend on food rather than splurging on new clothes, shoes or household goods. NSW was the best-performing state in January.
Department store sales were weak falling 2.1%, though that didn’t hurt Myer as much as it seems to have damaged rivals David Jones and Kmart.
Food retailing and hospitality (cafes, coffee etc) did better.
The ABS said there were mixed results across the sector with rises in food retailing and cafes, restaurant and takeaway services (both up 0.3%) and other retailing (0.7%).
These modest gains were offset by the big fall for department stores and Clothing, footwear and personal accessories retailing (down 0.3%). Household goods retailing sales saw no change
Results were mixed from state to state, with New South Wales the stand out with a rise of 0.7% in contrast to a 0.5% slide in Queensland while sales in Victoria dipped 0.1%.
The trend estimate for Australian retail turnover rose 0.1% in January 2019, following a 0.1% rise in December. Compared to January 2018, the trend estimate rose 2.8%.
