Australia Retail Sales Sink 1.8% In June

(RTTNews) - The total value of retail sales in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 1.8 percent on month in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at A$30.590 billion.

That was in line with expectations following the 0.4 percent increase in May.

June was impacted heavily by stay-at-home orders for multiple states and territories, with the largest falls seen in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-6.0 percent), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-9.5 percent), and department stores (-7.0 percent). Other retailing (-1.6 percent), and household goods retailing (-1.3 percent) also fell.

Food retailing (1.5 per cent) was the only industry to rise as ongoing and re-introduced coronavirus restrictions required households to substitute eating out for eating at home.

On a yearly basis, retail sales were up 2.9 percent.

For the second quarter of 2021, retail sales were up 0.8 percent on quarter and 9.2 percent on year at A$87.049 billion.