Retail spending lifts in December

Retail spending lifts in December

17 February 2014

Retail spending has continued to rise in the December 2013 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.

After adjusting for seasonal effects, the volume of total retail trade sales rose 1.2 percent in the December 2013 quarter. This follows a 0.2 percent rise in the previous quarter.

“Nine of the 15 retail industries had higher sales volumes in this latest quarter,” industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said.

The industries with the largest increases in December were:
• fuel retailing, up 5.7 percent
• clothing, footwear, and accessories retailing, up 9.9 percent
• recreational goods retailing, up 8.6 percent.

The volume of sales in the core retailing industries (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) rose 0.7 percent.

When the effect of price changes is included, the total value of retail sales rose 1.2 percent ($221 million), with sales rising in 11 of the 15 retail industries. For the core retail industries, sales rose 1.0 percent ($143 million).

Looking at the longer-term picture, the trends for both total retail sales volumes and values have generally been rising since mid-2009.

In actual terms the value of total retail sales was $19.9 billion in the December 2013 quarter, up 3.9 percent compared with the same quarter in 2012.

For more information about these statistics:

• Visit Retail Trade Survey: December 2013 quarter

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