SA April retail trade sales up 1.0 y/y

Growth in SA's retail trade sales at constant (2008) prices for April slowed to a much weaker than expected 1.0% year-on-year (y/y) after a slightly downwardly revised 6.7% [6.8%] growth in March‚ figures released on Wednesday, 13 June 2012, by Statistics SA showed.

13 Jun 2012

Stats SA noted that the y/y growth rate for April was affected by a relatively high base‚ since retail sales were boosted in April 2011 by the concentration of public holidays in late April and early May 2011 and additional school holidays after the Easter weekend.

Retail trade sales growth at constant (2008) prices for April was expected to come in at 4.1% y/y according to a survey of leading economists by I-Net Bridge.

Forecasts among the eleven economists ranged from 2.5% to 6.9%.

Measured in real terms (constant 2008 prices)‚ seasonally adjusted retail trade sales growth rose 1.5% in April compared with March.

This followed month-on-month changes of 2.2% in March and -2.4% in February.

In terms of the 1.0% y/y growth in April‚ the highest annual growth rates were recorded for retailers in hardware‚ paint and glass‚ with 8.7%; and retailers in pharmaceutical and medical goods‚ cosmetics and toiletries‚ with 3.3%.

In real terms‚ retail trade for the three months ended April reflected an increase of 4.7% compared with the three months ended April 2011.

The largest contributors were general dealers‚ with 4.1% and contributing 1.6 percentage points; retailers in textiles‚ clothing‚ footwear and leather goods‚ with 5.9% and contributing 1.2 percentage points; and 'all other' retailers‚ with 7.2% and contributing 0.9 of a percentage point.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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