Retail trade October 2017

Retail trade turnover (current prices)

Monthly change (trend data)

Retail trade in the Territory decreased by 0.4 per cent compared to the previous month, to $259 million in October 2017 (Chart 1).

The main detractors from retail trade in the month were decreases in spending on food (down 0.4 per cent), household goods (down 0.5 per cent), and pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry (down 0.9 per cent). The main drivers in the month were spending on cafes, restaurants and takeaway food spending (up 1.0 per cent), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory (up 0.7 per cent).

The Territory reported the lowest monthly result in retail trade. Across other jurisdictions, the monthly change in trend retail trade ranged from a decline of 0.3 per cent in Western Australia to an increase of 0.1 per cent in South Australia, Nationally, retail trade turnover declined by 0.1 per cent to $26.0 billion.

Annual change (trend data)

Retail trade in the Territory increased by 0.4 per cent through the year to October 2017 (Chart 2). This was the second lowest annual change of the jurisdictions, behind Western Australia (down 0.7 per cent) (Chart 3). Nationally, retail trade increased by 1.6 per cent in annual terms.

The annual increase was mainly driven by:

• food retailing (up 1.6 per cent);
• pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry (up 7.1 per cent); and
• other recreational goods (up 3.5 per cent).

This was partly offset by:

• cafes, restaurants and takeaway food (down 4.7 per cent);
• household goods (down 0.5 per cent); and
• clothing, footwear and personal accessory (down 0.7 per cent).

Year on year change (original data)

In the year to October 2017, retail spending in the Territory increased by 0.6 per cent to $3.1 billion. Nationally, retail spending increased by 2.6 per cent to $310.1 billion over the same period.

The Territory’s year on year increase was mainly driven by increased spending on food retailing (up 3.2 per cent). This was partly offset by reductions in household goods spending (down 2.7 per cent), and other recreational goods (down 8.0 per cent).