Retailers continued the bumpy ride in March, with sales regaining the losses of the previous month. The Australian National Retailers Association
Retailers continued the bumpy ride in March, with sales regaining the losses of the previous month.
The Australian National Retailers Association (ARNA) is talking up new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing a 2.2 percent increase on February sales.
“The two rounds of cash bonuses have provided a much needed injection into cash registers around the country,” ANRA Chief Executive Margy Osmond says.
“Access Economics estimates that the stimulus effect was $616 million in March.”
The big winners were department stores which were up 13.2 percent in March. Clothing and soft goods are up 6.4 percent.
“The department stores have captured a fair portion of the second cash bonus after some very aggressive marketing targeted at households. We would expect this spurt in retail spending will carry over and continue until the end of the financial year.”
Almost all the states performed well. New South Wales is up 1.2 percent, Victoria 2.7 percent, Queensland 3.2 percent, South Australia 2.4 percent, Western Australia 2.2 percent, Tasmania 2.2 percent and the Northern Territory is up 4.2 percent. The ACT was down 0.1%.
“The March quarter was very good, recording 1 percent real growth – the best quarter we’ve seen since December 2007,” Osmond says.
The ANRA has also released the latest findings of its consumer sentiment survey on the cash bonus, which reveals Australians are continuing to be conservative with their handouts.
“The mortgage is a bigger priority now than what it was in January and fewer people are popping the money into their savings account,” Osmond says.
“Overall, Australians are still split fairly evenly between spending and saving the cash.”
Over 30 percent of respondents receiving the second bonus said they will pay down debt including their mortgage, 22 percent will spend it on non-essential items like clothing and footwear, and 21 percent will spend on general living expenses. Around 8 percent of people will go on a holiday.