The strong growth in retail sales in July was confirmed on Friday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which reported a rise of 3.2%, seasonally adjusted from June.
This updated the preliminary report of a 3.3% rise published by the Bureau on August 21 and was faster than the 2.7% rise in June.
Helping drive sales faster was the continuing rise in sales of perishable and non-perishable goods (such as canned foods) in supermarkets in Victoria.
“The rise in spending, particularly for non-discretionary items follows increases in the number of COVID-19 cases,” the ABS pointed out in the article in the retail data report.
The ABS’s Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys Ben James said in a statement with the data on Friday “retail sales in July 2020 were 12.0 percent above July 2019, with sales in household goods particularly strong, 29.4 percent above the same month last year.”
“Turnover in clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (7.1 percent) and cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services (4.9 percent) rose across the country, with the exception of Victoria, where the reintroduction of Stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions in July partially offset these rises. As was the case in April, restrictions led to significant falls in these industries in Victoria” said Mr. James.
Household goods led the month with a rise of 4.0%, as did department stores as consumers continued to purchase large items (furniture and white goods) for homes, but there were also large rises in other retailing, up 4.4% and food (up 1.2%).
In seasonally adjusted terms, there were rises in NSW (5.9%), Queensland (5.0%), Western Australia (3.8%), South Australia (2.9%), the ACT (5.8%), Tasmania (4.2%), and the Northern Territory (3.1%).
Not unexpectedly retail sales in Victoria fell 2.1% in July and the August slide will be much deeper because of the tighter lockdowns.
Online sales made up 9.8% of total retail turnover in original terms in July 2020, a slight rise from 9.7% in June.
In a special article analysing supermarket sales, the ABS said the continuing high levels of sales of perishable goods indicated the boom in home cooking that started in the lockdowns earlier this year, continued in July (perhaps boosted by the tighter controls in Victoria.
The ABS said that turnover rose for Non-perishable goods (7.8%), Perishable goods (6.2%), and All other products (7.7%) in July 2020 compared to June 2020, in original terms.
“Retail turnover for all three categories continues to remain at higher levels when compared to July 2019.
“Annually, Perishable goods rose 15.4%, Non-perishable goods 14.3%, and All other products 10.2%. The higher levels of revenue reflect a continuation of more food being prepared and consumed at home due to social distancing,“ the ABS said.
