Bushfires and Australia’s embrace of the November Black Friday sales has taken a worse-than-expected toll on December retail trade, with cafes and restaurants particularly affected in a 0.5 per cent monthly spending drop.
Seasonally adjusted retail spending fell by $140 million during the month to $27.77 billion, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday, the momentum reversing sharply from a sales-driven 0.9 per cent rise in November.
NSW businesses were particularly hit by the bushfire catastrophe, with retail sales dropping by 1.2 per cent.
Only South Australia was worse, with a 1.3 per cent fall.
“The December fall comes after a strong November, led by Black Friday sales” said Ben James of the ABS.
“There were also some effects from bushfires and associated smoke haze apparent in NSW data… specifically, food retailing and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services were negatively impacted.”
However, quarterly retail volumes exceeded economists predictions, rising by a seasonally adjusted 0.5 per cent in the three months from October.
The market had tipped a 0.3 per cent improvement after a fall of 0.1 per cent in the September quarter 2019.
The quarterly rise in volumes was led by household goods retailing, up 1.4 per cent, clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, up 1.5 per cent, and department stores, up 2.1 per cent.
The rises were slightly offset by seasonally adjusted volume falls in food retailing, down 0.4 per cent.
The Australian dollar edged up to 67.57 US cents from 67.52 US cents immediately after the release of the data, and was worth 67.56 US cents at 1140 AEDT.
AAP
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