NAB online sales index for August is out and shows good ongoing growth in the index:
In the year to August 2012, Australians spent a total of $11.9 billion in online retail sales. This figure is equivalent to 5.4% of traditional bricks & mortar retail spending (excluding cafés, restaurants and takeaway food) for the year ended July 2012.
The NAB Online Retail Sales Index moved higher to 210 points in August 2012, up from 200 points in July. Recent months have seen a lower level of volatility in month to month movements.
Growth in online spending remains strong – relative to the past year – with spending increasing by around +22% year-on-year in August. This level is slightly softer than in July (+25%), but stronger than the period from March to June this year. Growth in August 2011 was marginally stronger, at +28% year-on-year.
Growth for online sales remains considerably stronger than traditional bricks & mortar retail.
Traditional sales slowed in July – down to +1.6% year-on-year (non-seasonally adjusted), compared with +4.9% in June. It should be noted that the slowdown was not particularly significant after seasonal adjustment (down from +4.6% to +3.8%).
More good news for the economy though again backward looking for tomorrow’s RBA meeting.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
