Black Friday proves gold for retail sales

Black Friday turbocharged retail sales in November, providing a welcome break from Australians’ spending strike.

Posters boast of Black Friday bargains. Picture: AAP

Black Friday turbocharged retail sales in November, providing a welcome break from the spending strike that has afflicted the economy through 2019.

Retail turnover jumped 0.9 per cent in the month, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, well above economists’ forecasts for a 0.4 per cent lift and against a 0.1 per cent gain for the previous month.

"We have seen strong growth in Black Friday sales, both in areas such as electrical goods and online sales, but also in areas such as clothing and furniture," ABS director of quarterly economy-wide surveys Ben James said.

"While seasonal adjustment removes regular seasonal patterns associated with Black Friday based on prior results, the strong rises in a number of subgroups this month shows that the impact of this Black Friday exceeded that of previous years."

The Aussie dollar rose from US68.55c to US68.71c as the retail data may lessen the chance of February rate cut. But that good news was bad news for the share market, with S&P/ASX 200 dipping.

However, BIS Oxford chief economist Dr Sarah Hunter said it remained to be seen how much of the month’s retail gains were brought forward from a traditionally strong December.

“Consumer confidence surveys suggest that households are becoming increasingly concerned about the economic outlook and some retailers have reported that December was disappointing, suggesting that total spending in the run up to Christmas was fairly subdued,” Dr Hunter said.

“The retail turnover data for December that will be released next month will confirm whether there has been any material pick-up in the pace of growth in household spending.”

The ABS figures showed a strong 3.1 per cent lift in sales of clothing and footwear, and a 3.4 per cent lift for department store turnover. Sales of household goods climbed 1.2 per cent, food 0.5 per cent and spending in cafes and restaurants 0.9 per cent.

Spending rose across the states, including a 0.7 per cent lift in New South Wales, 1.1 per cent in Victoria and 1.2 per cent in Queensland. The Northern Territory was the exception, with spending there dropping 0.2 per cent in November.

Experts fret that households may have brought forward Christmas shopping to take advantage of the Black Friday sales – an American tradition which has become increasingly popular among Australian shoppers.

Consumption has been a marked area of weakness for the economy. The September quarter national accounts showed the weakest growth in consumption since the GFC, at just 0.2 per cent.

Retail sales in inflation-adjusted terms fell over the year to September for the first time since the early 1990s recession.

With AAP