Retail sales again beat forecasts in October

Shoppers showed no signs of putting their wallets away, with the latest data released today by Statistics New Zealand showing sales growth in October beat forecasts.

Economists had predicted seasonally adjusted growth of 0.2 per cent but it came out at 0.4 per cent.

Excluding car sales the sales growth was 0.3 per cent.

Twenty-two of the 24 retail storetypes recorded small dollar value movements and 11 recorded higher seasonally adjusted sales in October.

Only supermarket and grocery stores, and motor vehicle retailing recorded increases greater than $5 million. The supermarket group was up 1.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis. Appliance sales were up 0.8 per cent, car sales 1.0 per cent, accomodation sales 0.7 per cent and cafes and restaurants 0.5 per cent.

On the negative side, recreational goods sales fell 2.4 per cent and clothing and softgoods sales fell 1.4 per cent.

Over the year, actual sales were up 4.3 per cent, sharply down on the 8.6 per cent rise in the September year and well down on economists' forecasts of 6.6 per cent.

- NZPA