The total value of retail sales in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent on month in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday - coming in at A$24.311 billion.
That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent following the downwardly revised 0.6 percent gain in June (originally 0.7 percent).
Among the individual components, food retailing was up 0.2 percent, followed by household goods retailing (0.4 percent), cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (0.3 percent), other retailing (0.3 percent) and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (0.4 percent). Department stores were down 0.1 percent.
By region, sales in New South Wales were up 0.4 percent, followed by Victoria (0.2 percent), Western Australia (0.1 percent), the Australian Capital Territory (0.5 percent), South Australia (0.1 percent) and the Northern Territory (0.3 percent).
Queensland (0.0 percent) and Tasmania (0.0 percent) were relatively unchanged.
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