Retail sales in Australia were up a seasonally adjusted 2.2 percent in March compared to the previous month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, standing at A$19.30 billion. That was well above analyst expectations for a 0.5 percent gain following the 2 percent decline in February.
All industries had a seasonally adjusted increase in March. Food retailing was up 0.4 percent, along with department stores (+13.2 percent), clothing and soft good retailing (+6.4 percent), household good retailing (+1.3 percent), other retailing (+1.5 percent) and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (+1.4 percent).
All states except the Australian Capital Territory (-0.1 percent) had an increase in March. New South Wales was up 1.2 percent, along with Victoria (+2.7 percent), Queensland (+3.2 percent), South Australia (+2.4 percent), Western Australia (+2.2 percent), Tasmania (+2.2 percent) and the Northern Territory (+4.2 percent).
For the first three months of 2009, retail sales were up 1.0 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Analysts had expected a rise of 0.8 percent on quarter.
In terms of volume, retail turnover climbed to A$53.96 billion from A$53.41 billion in the previous three months.
Also on Wednesday, the ABS said that Australia posted a merchandise trade balance of A$2.498 billion in March. The trade surplus was higher than the A$2.11 billion balance reported for April, and was also above the A$1.7 billion balance projected by most economic analysts after the revised A$746 million surplus in February.
The bureau said the seasonally adjusted surplus increase was primarily due to a decrease in goods and services imports.
Seasonally adjusted exports were up A$16 million to A$24.65 billion, with higher exports of rural goods responsible up 10 percent. The rise in rural goods was largely driven by the cereal grains and cereal preparations component, which rose A$249 million or 41 percent.
Imports fell a seasonally adjusted A$730 million or 3 percent, driven by non-monetary gold - which fell 46 percent to A$806 million.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.