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Highlights
- The ABS recently released the data for retail trade in January and business conditions in February.
- Non-food online retail sales were higher in January compared to online food retailing.
- Businesses reported lesser supply-chain disruptions and lower worker absenteeism in February 2022.
At a time when the Russia-Ukraine conflict is threatening global economic growth, promising economic data in Australia is giving a sigh of relief. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail trade data for January and business conditions and sentiments data for February this morning. The data reflects the strength and resilience of the Australian economy in an uncertain market scenario.
After ending 2021 on a weak note, retail trade has shown some improvement in January 2022. The latest data from the ABS suggests that retail trade rose 1.8% in January 2022 relative to December 2021 and by 6.4% compared to January 2021.
Australian retail sales jump 1.8% || Breaking News Australia
In December 2021, retail trade demonstrated a monthly drop of 4.4% against the current rise. For January 2022, retail turnover stood at AU$32.49 billion. Notably, retail turnover peaked in November 2021 to AU$33.41 billion, inching lower over the subsequent months.
January saw robust retail spending as the market slowly adjusted to the Omicron variant outbreak. The beginning of January was marked with rising virus cases and self-imposed lockdowns by Aussies. This led to a remarkable increase in at-home and takeaway retailing services. At the same time, the removal of lockdown restrictions facilitated some activity across discretionary industries, giving a mixed result.
DO NOT MISS: Retail spending soars in January 2022 following a December fall
Online retail sales
Online retailing benefitted from the widespread prevalence of self-imposed restrictions in January. As most consumers preferred to stay indoors, online retailing rose 7.9% in January 2022. The rise came after three consecutive months of falling online retail trade.
Total online retailing sales stood at AU$3.89 billion in January 2022, reaching the second-highest level in the series. Online retail sales in January were 28.3% higher over one year. The January rise stemmed from strong online non-food retailing, which were 11.1% higher over a month. Total online non-food sales amounted to AU$282.5 million, while online food sales came in at AU$1.06 billion.
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Supply-chain issues decline in February
The ABS also released the data on business conditions and sentiments survey carried out between 17 and 24 February 2022. The survey showed that 37% of businesses experienced supply chain disruptions in January after having suffered shipment delays and raw material shortages. This is less than the share of businesses (47%) in January 2022.
Additionally, staff absenteeism also declined in February as 15% of businesses reported staff being absent due to issues related to COVID-19, as opposed to 22% in January. Labour absenteeism was more common among larger businesses. However, smaller businesses were mostly not being able to cover the hours lost using existing employees.
However, the effect of supply disruptions has not gone away completely. While the share of businesses experiencing supply chain disruptions was less in February (37%) than January, they remained at elevated levels relative to the level seen in April 2021 (30%). Last month, 69% of businesses experienced little impact on revenue from some delays, while 28% were affected to a great extent.
The most common source of these supply chain disruptions was domestic and international delivery delays, which were felt by a massive 88% of businesses. Other factors included supply constraints, felt by 80% of businesses and increasing prices, observed by 75%. However, half of the businesses reported that they were unable to source alternate suppliers for products.
Also read: ABS update: Dwelling approvals drop in January while trade surplus improves
