Retail sales in Australia were up a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in April compared to the previous month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, coming in at A$19.35 billion. That was below expectations for a 0.5 percent monthly gain following the increase of 2.2 percent in March and the fall of 2.0 percent in February.
Among the individual components, clothing and soft good retailing were up 0.8 percent, followed by household good retailing ( up 3.9 percent) and other retailing ( up 0.1 percent), while food retailing (-0.2 percent), Department stores (-2.8 percent) and Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.5 percent) industries ended lower.
Among individual states, New South Wales added 1.3 percent), followed by Queensland (+0.8 percent), Tasmania (+0.5 percent) and the Australian Capital Territory (+0.9 percent). Victoria was virtually unchanged, while South Australia (-0.1 percent), Western Australia (-2.4 percent) and the Northern Territory (-4.6 percent) all decreased in April.
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