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Retailers say retail trade ‘not good enough' - 0.7 percent rise in July retail sales
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 13:37
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The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said the ABS July Retail Trade figures showing a 0.7 percent growth in July retail trade was encouraging but not good enough to mean retailers were out of the woods just yet. ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said retailers faced their first month of increased wage bills in July and would want to see a few more months of some significant growth across all retail categories before they felt confident about business conditions going forward. "The first phase of the new retail award began on 1 July which meant retailers had more wage bills expenditure last month, so this moderate increase in trade would have been welcomed particularly from café, restaurants and take-away shop owners who have recorded the most significant growth at 5.3 percent. "Eating out seems to be a small luxury consumers are happy to treat themselves. However, it's not the same story across the board (Other retailing 1.4%, Food retailing 0.4%, and Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing 0.2%, Household goods retailing -1.7% and Department stores - 0.7%) and we're still getting emails every day from retailers across the country saying this is one of the worst years of trade they can remember." "When we look at year-on-year growth, July sales are up 4 percent from the same time in 2009 but this is also propped up by cafés, restaurants and takeaways up 15.2 percent from last year." "Figures released yesterday in the ARA Consumer Spending Confidence Survey show 75% of consumers are planning on spending less, seeking out sales or cutting spending drastically in next 12 months. However, about half of the respondents aren't planning on changing how much they spend on dining out." "If business doesn't start to improve across all retail categories, small retailers who are already struggling to manage increased wage bills will have to start letting go of staff. This is not the time for the RBA to look at increasing interest rates," Zimmerman said. YEAR-ON-YEAR RETAIL GROWTH (July 2009 - July 2010)
MONTHLY RETAIL GROWTH (June 2010 - July 2010)
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