The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has today released the final Retail Trade figures before Christmas, revealing a 0.4 per cent rise in retail turnover during the month of October.
The October 2014 rise follows a 1.3 per cent rise in turnover seen in September 2014 and marks a trend estimate rise of 5.0 per cent from October 2013.
The household goods industry was found to have the highest retail rise, with a seasonally adjusted increase of 1.4 per cent ($56.9 million). Food retailing followed (0.5 per cent), along with department stores (2.0 per cent), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (1.1 per cent) and other retailing (0.2 per cent).
Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services saw a 2.1 per cent drop in revenue.
“These results are very welcome news for retailers. They confirm a continuation of the upward trend that began late last year,” National Retail Association (NRA) Chief Executive Trevor Evans said
“They also confirm the NRA’s projections of a 5.0 per cent increase in retail trade for the important Christmas and Boxing Day sales period, where spending nationally is expected to reach $43.7 billion over the final six weeks of the year.”
A rise in retail turnover was seen in South Australia (1.2 per cent), New South Wales (0.7 per cent), Queensland (0.4 per cent), the ACT (0.4 per cent) and Western Australia (0.1 per cent). Victoria saw no major change (0.0 per cent), while Tasmania (-0.1 per cent) and the Northern Territory (-0.4 per cent) saw slight declines.
“While the overall results are welcome and point to an ongoing recovery for retail, the patchy state and category results show that there is still a long way to go before the sector returns to its pre-GFC strength. However, this is the continuation of a welcome trend, and a sign that retailers and their staff are headed for a merry Christmas,” Mr Evans said.