NZ retail sales edge up 0.1% in June quarter
NZ retail sales edge up 0.1% in June quarter as online purchases grow, petrol slides
By Paul McBeth
Aug. 14 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand retail
sales volumes edged up in the June quarter, missing
expectations, as growth in online buying helped offset a
slide in petrol purchases.
The volume of retail sales
rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in the three months
ended June 30, shrinking from the 2.3 percent expansion in
the March quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand. That
was less than the 0.5 percent expansion seen in a Reuters
poll of economists.
Stripping out vehicle-related
purchases, core retail sales volumes increased 0.1 percent,
compared to 2.5 percent growth in the March period. The
value of retail sales, which includes price fluctuations,
rose 0.1 percent in the quarter, while core retail values
shrank 0.2 percent.
“Although just over half the
industries had sales volume increases this quarter, they
were modest in size compared with growth in recent
quarters,” business indicators manager Neil Kelly said in
a statement.
New Zealand consumers have grown more
downbeat in recent months as the end of the dairy boom and
peak in the Canterbury rebuild take the wind out of the
country’s economic expansion, while record inbound net
migration bolstering the size of the workforce and tepid
consumer price inflation has kept wage growth
subdued.
The New Zealand dollar recently traded at
65.60 US cents, from 65.59 cents immediately before the
10:45am release.
Non-store and commission-based
retailing, which includes local online vendors, dragged up
volumes, rising 8.1 percent in the quarter, and slowing from
an 8.3 percent expansion in the March quarter. The sector
makes up about 1.5 percent of actual sales values, and is
often a volatile series.
Fuel retailing was the
biggest drag on consumer spending, shrinking 0.9 percent as
the value of spending on fuel rose 3.2 percent on more
expensive petrol prices.
The volume of supermarket and
grocery sales rose 0.3 percent in the quarter with values
unchanged in the period, while pharmaceutical and other
store-based retailing volumes grew 0.7 percent with values
up 0.1 percent.
Accommodation retailing volumes shrank
1.7 percent in the quarter, for a 0.1 percent decline in
values. Spending volumes on motor vehicles and parts rose
0.6 percent, while values shrank 0.1 percent.
On an
unadjusted basis, retail sales volumes rose 5.9 percent in
the June quarter from the same period a year earlier, while
core retail volumes gained 6.2 percent. Sales values
increased 4.1 percent from a year earlier, with core retail
sales values increasing 5.5 percent. Economists predicted
5.2 percent growth in the value of quarterly sales from a
year earlier.
The volume of non-store and
commissioned-based retailing jumped 36 percent in the year,
for a 35 percent gain in the value of sales, while the
volume of electrical and electronic goods climbed 14 percent
for a 4 percent increase in the value of
sales.
Supermarket and grocery volumes were 2.4
percent higher than a year earlier, for a 3.4 percent
increase in the value, while fuel retailing volumes gained
5.1 percent for a 3.2 percent decline in value.
Retailers’ inventories were 2.5 percent higher at
$6.93 billion at the end of the quarter compared to a year
earlier, with core retail stocks 2.2 percent higher at $5.19
billion from June 2014.
Inventories for motor vehicles
and parts rose 4.4 percent, while fuel stocks shrank 11
percent from a year earlier. Non-store and commission-based
stocks were 23 percent higher, and furniture, floor
coverings, houseware and textiles inventories rose 8
percent.
(BusinessDesk)