Coronavirus: Victorian lockdown flattens national retailing growth

A Covid shutdown in Victoria has flattened growth in national retail spending, with the state’s consumers cutting back by $125m in May compared with April.

The ABS has released its preliminary report on retail sales in May – a month marred by the start of Melbourne’s fourth lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Victorians spent $120m less in May as the state’s fourth lockdown shuttered shops, flattening national sales growth.

Preliminary figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also showed a 0.1 per cent increase compared with April in national retail turnover to $31.07bn, held down by the 1.5 per cent drop in sales in the southern state after restrictions, including limits on travel and mandated store closures, were implemented from May 28.

Retail turnover on a seasonally adjusted basis in Victoria fell in every category besides food retailing, the ABS said, where panic buying ahead of the renewed restrictions drove food sales 4 per cent higher than in April.

Spending in Queensland and Western Australia climbed by 1.5 per cent in the month, helping offset the weak Victorian result.

Across the country, household goods retailing fell 1 per cent, and clothing, accessories and footwear retailing by 1.5 per cent.

Annual growth in sales fell from 25 per cent to 7.4 per cent as the numbers were compared with the immediate post-lockdown sales rebound of May 2020. Sales climbed by 1.1 per cent in April, with Australians still spending 10 per cent more monthly than before the pandemic.

Economists expect spending will snap back in the wake of the easing of restrictions earlier this month – a pattern of previous lockdowns.

Analysis by KPMG suggested Victoria’s restrictions may flatten economic growth in the state in the June quarter, leaving Victoria further behind the national recovery. Government data revealed that fewer than 43,000 workers received the federal Covid disaster relief payment for those who lost income as a result of the second week of the lockdown.

The ABS retail trade figures do not include spending on services.