Australia Retail Sales Jump 0.9% On Month In May
(RTTNews) - The value of retail sales in Australia was up a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent on month in May, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - coming in at A$34.229 billion.
That beat expectations for an increase of 0.4 percent and was unchanged from the April reading.
Department stores had the largest rise, up 5.1 percent, followed by cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services (1.8 percent), other retailing (1.5 percent), food retailing (0.6 percent) and household goods retailing (0.4 percent).
Clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailing was the only industry to record a fall, down 1.4 percent, following three consecutive monthly rises.
Of the states and territories, New South Wales had the largest rise in retail turnover, up 1.6 percent, followed by Victoria, up 1.3 percent.
Turnover also rose in South Australia (1.9 percent), Western Australia (0.2 percent), Tasmania (1.1 percent) and the Northern Territory (0.6 percent).