eBusiness Weekly
Anathi Madubela
Annual retail sales decreased by 4.2 percent year-on-year in August, Statistics South Africa announced on Wednesday.
This is a smaller decrease than July’s revised 8.6 percent year-on-year decrease, though it will be the fifth consecutive month that annual retail sales have declined. Seasonally adjusted retail sales increased by 4 percent in August compared with July 2020.
This followed month-on-month contractions of 0.6 percent in July 2020 and 5.1 percent in June 2020.
In the three months ending August, seasonally adjusted retail sales increased by 16.7 percent compared with the previous three months of the year.
Year-on-year, all categories expressed negative growth with the largest negative contributor to this decrease being all ‘other’ retailers with -38.8 percent growth.
This category comprises retailers in reading matter and stationery; jewellery, watches and clocks; and retailers in sports goods and entertainment requisites.
As spending remained subdued under lockdown, textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods also recorded a 10.2 percent annual decline, the second highest after ‘other’ retailers.
Retail sales decreased by 6.7 percent in the three months ending August 2020 compared with the three months ending August 2019.
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