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Retail sales gain in June

supermarket, aisleOverall retail sales grew by 4.9 per cent in June 2015 compared to June 2014, with food retailing also remaining steady at 3.3 per cent, official figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show.

Retail sales rose 0.7 per cent, seasonally adjusted, in June compared to May 2015 to $24.347 billion.

“June’s retail sales growth is very pleasing and is an improvement on the previous month’s positive results of 4.6 per cent, indicating increased confidence in the market,” Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, said.

Year on year figures for June 2015 showed gains across all categories, with household goods recording the highest amount of growth with 10.6 per cent; followed by clothing, footwear and personal accessories, 5.8 per cent; café restaurants, and takeaway foods, 5.4 per cent; food, 3.3 cent percent; other retailing, 2.9 percent; and department stores, 2.3 per cent.

Retail Council CEO, Anna McPhee, said continued flow on effects from May’s Budget announcements and the RBA’s decision to lower the official cash rate have likely encouraged a moderate lift in retail spending in June.

By state, the ACT achieved the highest year on year growth at 8.3 per cent; followed by NSW, 6.7 per cent; South Australia, 6.2 per cent; Victoria, 5.4 per cent; Queensland, 2.9 per cent;Western Australia; 2.6 per cent; Tasmania, 1.7 per cent; and Northern Territory, 0.7 per cent.

Trevor Evans, CEO of the National Retail Association (NRA), said June’s spending rise showed the Budget had sparked the necessary confidence among consumers and business buyers.

“It’s pleasing to see that the measures included in the Budget, particularly the $20,000 instant write-off of purchases for small businesses, have prompted the right response.

“We would expect to see these kinds of results for June each year until 2017, when the budget measures are scheduled to come to an end,” Evans said.

Food in focus 

In current prices, the trend estimate for food retailing rose 0.2 per cent in June 2015 from May 2015, while the seasonally adjusted estimate fell 0.1 per cent.

Supermarket and grocery stores rose 0.2 per cent for the month of June, compared to a rise of 0.3 per cent in May.

Other specialised food retailing grew 0.2 per cent, compared a fall of 0.3 per cent in May. Liquor retailing was relatively unchanged at 0.0 per cent.

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