As many AGM updates have been telling us, September turned out to be another solid month for retailing, according to the sales data for the month from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday (ABS).
Retailers from JB Hi Fi, Super Retail and Premier Investments, plus the likes of Coles and Endeavour Group have revealed good rises in first quarter sales – in part helped by higher prices because of shortages, inflation and the wet weather.
Australian retail turnover rose 0.6% in September, the ninth consecutive rise, following a 0.6% rise in August 2022 and July’s 1.3% gain, the ABS said on Monday.
That put sales up 17.9% from the Covid depressed month of September, 2021, a comparison that is not really relevant because of that.
The real comparison is to how sales performed compared to previous months this year and so far it has been all up, even with the succession of rate rises from the Reserve Bank.
ABS head of retail statistics, Ben Dorber, said, yesterday the September rise was again driven by the combined strength in the food industries.
“Food retailing rose 1.0 per cent, while cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services rose 1.3 per cent.
“Many retailers remained open for the National Day of Mourning, an additional one-off public holiday in September, and this boosted spending on food, alcohol and dining out.”
Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing saw the largest percentage rise, up 2.0%, reversing part of the large fall of 2.3% in August. Other retailing also rose, up 0.2%.
Household goods retailing fell 0.8%, a slight decrease after August’s large rise of 2.6%.
ABS said the fall in September was softened by the release of new mobile phone models and is the fourth monthly fall in household goods retailing in the last six months. Department stores also fell, down 0.4%.
Sales were at record levels in most states and territories. The Australian Capital Territory had the largest rise in September 2022, up 1.6% followed by Western Australia (1.4%), Queensland and the Northern Territory (1.1%, Tasmania (0.9%), Victoria (0.4%) and NSW (0.3%).
South Australia saw sales dip 0.2% in the month and, was the only state or territory to record a fall, the first in six months after five consecutive rises.
Quarterly data (which is expected to show a solid rise) will be released Thursday with the final report for September.
