Cape Town - Despite depressed economic conditions, measured in real terms, retail trade sales increased by 3.3% year-on-year in October 2015, Statistics SA announced on Wednesday.
The highest positive annual growth rates were recorded for: retailers in pharmaceuticals and medical goods, cosmetics and toiletries (8.5%); all 'other' retailers (6.0%); and retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods (4.8%).
The main contributors to the 3.3% increase were general dealers (contributing 1.3 percentage points) and retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods (contributing 1.0 percentage point).
Seasonally adjusted retail trade sales increased by 0.2% month-on-month in October 2015. This followed month-on-month changes of -1.7% in September 2015 and 1.9% in August 2015.
In the three months ended October 2015, seasonally adjusted retail trade sales increased by 1.0% compared with the previous three months.
Retail trade sales increased by 3.4% in the three months ended October 2015 compared with the three months ended October 2014. The main contributors to this increase were: general dealers (4.1% and contributing 1.6 percentage points); and retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods (5,1% and contributing 1,0 percentage point).