Australia’s retail turnover dips 1.5pc in September

The lower national turnover in September came as food and household goods sales slipped following rises during the pandemic.

Melbourne’s Collins Street. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Retail turnover fell 1.5 per cent from August to September, with food and household goods ­recording falls after a sustained period of elevated sales during the pandemic.

Every state and territory ­except the Northern Territory recorded falls in turnover, with NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia leading the month-on-month ­declines. Victoria, beset by extended business shutdowns as a result of the second wave of COVID-19, recorded only a slight fall in September. However, this followed a decline of 12.6 per cent in August when Melbourne was slapped with stage-four restrictions and regional Victoria faced stage-three restrictions.

Victoria is the only state where retail turnover remains below the levels recorded in September last year. In year-on-year terms, the data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that turnover rose 5.2 per cent in September compared with September last year.

“Food retailing, household goods retailing, and other retailing (which includes online-only retailers) recorded falls this month,” said the director of quarterly economy-wide surveys, Ben James. “These industries have recorded elevated levels of turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to trade above the levels of September 2019.”

Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said the ­government should not pull back on its pandemic support payments while retail trade was falling in every state.

“Ripping support out of the economy in the middle of the worst recession in almost 100 years will only make the downturn deeper, the jobless queues longer and force more business to close,” Dr Chalmers said.

“If only we had a Treasurer who spent as much time coming up with a comprehensive plan to support jobs, businesses and communities as he does brawling with the Victorian government.”

Australian Retailers ­Associ­ation chief executive Paul Zahra said the 5.2 per cent year-on-year rise for September was “setting us up for a cautiously ­optimistic Christmas”. He said retailers made up to two-thirds of their profits during the Christmas period, but it would not be the “typical Christmas we’re all used to”.