The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail sales data for January, with sales turnover rising 0.5% month-on-month to be up 10.6% compared with January 2020.
The next chart shows the strong rebound after April’s record 17.7% monthly decline caused by the national coronavirus lockdown:
Retail sales have rebounded strongly after declining sharply in April 2020 amid the national coronavirus lockdown.
Food retailing (+1.6%) and Other retailing (+1.4%) drove the monthly rise, offsetting falls across Clothing & footwear (-3.6%), Cafes & restaurants (-0.8%) and Department stores (-0.4%):
Retail sales by sub-industry were volatile in January, with strong rises and falls recorded.
Finally, the rise in retail sales was broad-based, with all jurisdictions other than Queensland reporting rising sales turnover in January:
All states and territories except for Queensland reported rising retail sales in January.
As noted earlier today, I expect retail sales to remain strong in 2021 on the back of the immense household savings stockpile and the ‘wealth effect’ from rising property values.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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