Confirmation yesterday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that Australian retail sales collapsed into a black hole in April.
The ABS said retail sales slumped a seasonally adjusted 17.7% in April, after that 8.5% jump in March.
April’s fall had been signalled in the preliminary data released by the ABS late in May and were a record, just as the 8.5% jump in March was a record.
Discretionary spending took the biggest hit, according to the ABS, while online sales rose, as did sales in hardware and similar shops.
In dollar terms, retail sales fell $5.32 billion in April from March and were also $2.53 billion lower than the April 2019 figure.
“There were record falls in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-35.4 percent), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-53.6 percent), as well as a large fall in department stores (-14.9 percent),” the ABS said.
April’s plunge will cut GDP by 2.1 percentage points, meaning that alone will be enough to produce a negative growth reading for the June quarter and a recession.
“Food retailing (-17.4 percent) led the falls in dollar terms this month following unprecedented demand in March,” The ABS said.
“Spending in food retailing remains 5.1 percent above the level of April 2019, likely reflecting additional meals being consumed at home during April 2020. Other retailing (-14.4 percent) fell after a large rise in March, while household goods retailing (-0.1 percent) saw a minor fall in sales as falls from closures of some physical stores were offset by a rise (6%) in hardware, building, and garden supply retailing.
“In seasonally adjusted terms, there were falls in Victoria (-21.1 percent), New South Wales (-17.5 percent), Queensland (-15.7 percent), Western Australia (-16.8 percent), South Australia (-14.6 percent), Tasmania (-17.5 percent), the Australian Capital Territory (-14.9 percent), and the Northern Territory (-7.7 percent) in April 2020, the ABS reported.
Plenty of retailers have reported big gains in their online businesses in the March quarter and through April and into May.
The ABS data supported revealing a rise in online retail turnover to 11.1% to total retail turnover in original terms – $2.703 billion – in April 2020, up from 7.1% in March and 5.7% in April 2019. In other words, online sales doubled.
The ABS said that online sales made up over 20.5% of sales across household goods retailing, clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, department stores, and other retailing.
Trade holding up.
The trade account held up well in April as the lockdowns put in place to try and control the COVID-19 pandemic hit export revenues from tourism and education and saw another fall in imports as well.
ABS trade data April released on Thursday showed the trade surplus fell $1.64 billion from March to $8.8 billion in April.
It was the 29th month in a row that Australia has recorded a trade surplus.
Exports fell 11% or $4.7 billion to $37 billion as exports of non-rural goods (coal, ores, and other minerals) fell $2.19 billion and exports of non-monetary gold slid more than $1.6 billion after the big rise in March.
Exports last at this level in September 2018
Goods services (income from travel, education, and business flights mostly) fell 13% to $924 million as the lockdowns closed the Australian border, stopping tourists and students from coming into the country.
The value of tourism-related services fell by $703 million in April from March while the value of travel fell $624 million.
Imports fell 10% to $28.70 billion, the lowest for four years as non-monetary gold fell $402 million, manufactured and near manufactured goods fell half a billion dollars. Capital goods rose $243 million (after a big fall in March) and consumption goods rose $329 million.
Imports were last around $28.7 billion in May 2016.
