ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said overall poor retail trade in September showed consumers would not cope with higher interest rates.

“Retailers really didn’t need Tuesday’s interest rate rise and we’re pleading with the RBA to keep rates on hold in December when most Australian’s would be doing their Christmas shopping.

“September’s trade boost of 2.5 percent for fashion retailers shouldn’t be misinterpreted as cause for celebration - this is only monthly growth from a very low base in August .Compared to the same time last year, fashion retail trade growth is only marginally above inflation at 3.9 percent.

 “When we look at year-on-year growth for the whole retail sector, trade is up 3.9 percent from the same time in 2009 but this is still being bolstered by cafés, restaurants and takeaways up 12.4 percent from the same time last year,” Mr Zimmerman said.

YEAR-ON-YEAR RETAIL GROWTH BY CATEGORY (September 2009 – September 2010)
Clothing, footwear & personal accessory retailing (3.9%),  department stores (1.2%) cafes, restaurants & takeaways (12.4%), other retailing (6.2%), food retailing (1.8%) and household goods retailing (1.9%).

MONTHLY RETAIL GROWTH BY STATE AND TERRITORY (July 2010 – August 2010)
Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (2.5%), other retailing (0.5%), household goods retailing (0.2%) and food Retailing (0.1%).  Turnover fell in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.4%) and department stores (-0.2%).

Turnover rose in Victoria (0.8%), Western Australia (1.0%), the Northern Territory (0.8%) and South Australia (0.2%). Turnover was flat in Queensland (0.0%) and fell in New South Wales (-0.2%), Tasmania (-0.4%) and the Australian Capital Territory (-0.2%).

For over 105 years, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body in Australia’s $292 billion retail sector which employs over 1.2 million people. 

Visit www.retail.org.auor call 1300 368 041