Year-on-year growth in retail sales is hugely encouraging at last. In fact, it's at its strongest since early 2010.
Australian Food & Grocery Council chief executive officer, Gary Dawson, said that the strengthening rate of growth suggested the Christmas trading period in 2013 may have been better than analysts had expected for retailers.
ANRA Boxing Day retail analysis may be read in full here.
Highlights are:
OVERALL SPEND FOR BOXING DAY, Australia wide.
Total: $1.9bn – up 5.5% on 2012.
Domestic bricks and mortar sales: $1.58bn.
Domestic online sales: $344m.
OVERALL SPEND FOR BOXING DAY TO MID-JAN, Australia wide.
Total: $17.6 billion – a 5.6% increase on 2012/2013.
Domestic bricks and mortar spending $13.1bn – up 2.3%
Domestic online spending $2.8bn – an increase of 13.8%
“The combined effect of low interest rates and improved consumer confidence after the Federal election has seen retailers experience a stronger-than-expected rise in retail sales over the past few months. Retailers will be hoping that the labour market also strengthens to support a return to a genuinely strong retail environment.”
The Index was 4.2% higher in December 2013 compared with December 2012, up from an increase of 1.9% between September 2013 and September 2012.
On a quarterly basis, the Index was 4.0% higher in the December 2013 quarter compared with the December 2012 quarter.
The Index suggests this upswing is likely to sustain through early 2014, forecasting a year-on-year increase of 4.2% for the month of February 2014 and a 4.2% year-on-year increase for the March 2014 quarter.
Recent movements in Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade trend data are consistent with this outlook. The latest data shows that year-on-year growth in nominal retail trade picked up to 4.1% over the year to November 2013, taking economists by surprise.
CHEP Australia & New Zealand president, Phillip Austin, said: “The strong growth since August 2013 is a welcome change. We’re delighted that the retail industry experienced a stronger than forecasted Christmas peak and that the uplift can be expected to continue into the March quarter of 2014. With our network size and scale, CHEP fully supported our retail customers through this upswing, and is well positioned to meet the additional demand for pallets, produce crates and retail display solutions resulting from the increase in retail trade.”
The next AFGC CHEP Retail Index will be released in late April 2014. Read the AFGC CHEP Retail Index and background information here.
