Australia Retail Sales Sink 3.9% In December

The value of retail sales in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent on month in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday – coming in at A$34.472 billion.

Individually, sales for food rose 0.3 percent on month, while household goods -7.8 percent), clothing (-13.1 percent), department stores (-14.3 percent) and other retailing (-4.6 percent) all were down.

On a yearly basis, retail sales were up 7.5 percent.

For the fourth quarter of 2022, retail sales dipped 0.2 percent to A$96.877 billion. Sales were up 1.8 percent in year in Q4.