Retail Turnover Rises Across Australia, Falls in Tasmania

Media release – Australian Bureau of Statistics, 29 June 2023

Retail turnover boosted by sales events

Source Retail Trade, Australia, May 2023

Australian retail turnover rose 0.7 per cent in May 2023, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This follows a flat result in April 2023 and a 0.4 per cent rise in March 2023.

Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics, said: “Retail turnover was supported by a rise in spending on food and eating out, combined with a boost in spending on discretionary goods.

“This latest rise reflected some resilience in spending with consumers taking advantage of larger than usual promotional activity and sales events for May.”

Other retailing recorded the largest rise (+2.2 per cent), with turnover growing strongly across a variety of businesses, including online-only retailers, florists, and pharmaceutical and cosmetics retailers. An early start to some end of financial year sales events boosted turnover along with Mother’s Day and the ‘Click Frenzy Mayhem’ sales event.

“Just as we saw during the November Black Friday sales last year, consumers appeared to take extra advantage of discounting during large sales events in May in response to cost-of-living pressures,” Mr Dorber said.

Household goods retailing (+0.6 per cent) had a modest rise following three straight monthly falls, with turnover down (-4.4 per cent) since May 2022.

Clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailing (-0.6 per cent) and department stores (-0.5 per cent) were the only retail categories to fall this month. This follows a rise in April when sales were boosted by increased spending on clothing items due to cooler and wetter than average weather.

For food-related industries, turnover rose in both cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (+1.4 per cent) and food retailing (+0.3 per cent). The rise in May means that cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services turnover is again at a record level following last month’s small fall. Food retailing has recorded a monthly rise for 16 of the past 18 months.

“Most of the growth in food-related spending this year has been driven by rising prices. This was seen in yesterday’s release of the Monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), which showed that food prices rose 7.9 per cent in the 12 months to May. The largest contributor to this increase was from meals out and takeaway food, as businesses passed on their higher costs through price rises,” Mr Dorber said.

Retail turnover rose across most of the states and territories. The Northern Territory (+1.6 per cent) recorded the largest rise and is now at its highest level. Tasmania recorded the only fall in turnover, down 0.1 per cent.

More information on the May reference period will be released on 5 July 2023 containing more detailed results, including state by industry, state by industry sub-group and online sales timeseries.

The ABS would like to thank businesses for their continued support in responding to our surveys.

Media release – Shane Broad MP, Shadow Treasurer, 5 July 2023

Cost of living hurting Tasmanians

Tasmanians continue to tighten their purse strings and focus on the essentials, with retail spending dropping for the second consecutive month.

Data released by the ABS shows that the state’s monthly retail trade fell to -0.1 per cent seasonally adjusted, further demonstrating that cost of living pressures are hurting Tasmanians.

It is of significant concern that Tasmania is lagging the rest of the country with retail spending increasing everywhere else in Australia.

With power prices increasing and the cost of groceries rising, people are making decisions on where to spend their money.

After almost 10 years of this Liberal Government, things are getting worse if people are having to choose between heating, eating or buying essential medications.

Just yesterday, a TCCI survey revealed that business confidence had dropped. This comes off the back of news last month that showed Tasmania was the only state whose domestic economy had declined for the previous two quarters.

It is clear that Tasmanians aren’t feeling confident under the leadership of Premier Jeremy Rockliff and his minority Liberal Government.

The Rockliff Government could have eased some of the pressure to households and businesses by adopting Tasmanian Labor’s policy to cap power price increases at 2.5 per cent each year for the next three years.

Instead power prices have gone up by over 20 per cent since June last year under Premier Rockliff’s watch and debt and deficit continues to grow.

The Liberals need to wake up and realise that Tasmanians are doing it tough.