Strip out the car sales and the country's retailers haven't had such a good start to the year.The headline retail sale values figure was a 0.2% increase for the first three months of 2010: on a sale volumes basis the rise was 0.5%.The rise in sale values
Strip out the car sales and the country’s retailers haven’t had such a good start to the year.
The headline retail sale values figure was a 0.2% increase for the first three months of 2010: on a sale volumes basis the rise was 0.5%.
The rise in sale values takes the retail sector, as a group, back to where it was in early 2008 before the economic downturn hit the domestic sector.
But once vehicle-related sales are removed, the picture is quite different: core retail sales actually fell 0.7% – only the second quarterly fall since the series began in 1995, and the larger of the two.
The trend for core retail sales has risen 1.8% since March lat year, but fell off somewhat in the recent quarter.
In terms of value, fuel sales rose 5.1%, or $82 million, for the quarter, while vehicles ales rose 4.9% or $81 million.
The only significant non-vehicle related rise was accommodation, up 3.7% or $24 million.
The biggest falls were supermarkets/groceries and cafes and restaurants, both which sustained falls worth $37 million (or 1% and 3.5% respectively).
Appliance retiling also fell, 4.5% or $29.million.
On a regional basis Canterbury is the only loser: in terms of values sales have declined 4.1% since March last year.
Elsewhere the trend is up: non-Canterbury South Island is leading the pack with rises of 5.9%; Auckland not far behind at 5.8%. The region with the lowest rate of increase is Wellington, with an increase of 1.5% since September last year.
