Johannesburg – Growth in SA’s retail trade sales at constant prices was weaker than expected in September‚ with sales increasing by 4.3% year on year (y/y) after an upwardly revised 6.7% (6.4%) increase in August‚ figures released on Wednesday by Statistics SA showed.
Retail trade sales were expected to have increased by 5.9% y/y‚ according to a survey of leading economists by I-Net Bridge.
Forecasts among the nine economists polled ranged from 1.2% to 6.5%.
Measured in real terms‚ seasonally adjusted retail trade sales decreased by 0.5% in September compared with August.
This followed month-on-month changes of 2.1% in August and -0.1% in July.
In terms of the 4.3% y/y increase in September‚ the highest annual growth rates were recorded for retailers in textiles‚ clothing‚ footwear and leather goods‚ with 8.8%; general dealers‚ with 4.9%; and retailers in household furniture‚ appliances and equipment‚ with 4.0%.
The main contributors to the 4.3% increase were general dealers who contributed 1.9 percentage points; and retailers in textiles‚ clothing‚ footwear and leather goods‚ contributing 1.7 percentage points.
In real terms‚ retail trade sales increased by 1.9% in the third quarter of this year compared with the previous quarter.
Sales rose by 4.6% in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. The main contributors were again retailers in textiles‚ clothing‚ footwear and leather goods; and general dealers.