Retail sales growth slowed further in July‚ supporting views that the sector remains under pressure.
Retail sales grew 0.8% in July from a year earlier‚ compared with a downwardly revised 1.4% in June.
Economists had expected an uptick from June — which marked a surprisingly steep slowdown from 4.5% the month before — but had not expected July’s growth to come in above 2%.
Compared with a month earlier‚ retail sales rose 0.4% in July‚ after a 1.9% contraction in June.
The year-on-year growth was driven mainly by the textiles‚ clothing and footwear sector (contributing 0.8 percentage points); and by general dealers‚ and pharmaceutical retailers‚ contributing 0.5 percentage points each.
Consumers have been under sustained pressure from higher interest rates‚ tighter lending criteria and rising inflation‚ as a severe drought has driven up food prices and rand weakness earlier this year drove up the prices of imports.
Some respite has come in the form of falling fuel prices — the petrol price fell 18c a litre in September and 99c in August — but economists have pointed repeatedly to low consumer confidence levels.
A survey released earlier this month showed consumers felt more financially vulnerable in the second quarter than they did in the first quarter.
More bad news as retail sector’s growth rate halves
Retail sales growth slowed further in July‚ supporting views that the sector remains under pressure.
Retail sales grew 0.8% in July from a year earlier‚ compared with a downwardly revised 1.4% in June.
Economists had expected an uptick from June — which marked a surprisingly steep slowdown from 4.5% the month before — but had not expected July’s growth to come in above 2%.
Compared with a month earlier‚ retail sales rose 0.4% in July‚ after a 1.9% contraction in June.
The year-on-year growth was driven mainly by the textiles‚ clothing and footwear sector (contributing 0.8 percentage points); and by general dealers‚ and pharmaceutical retailers‚ contributing 0.5 percentage points each.
Consumers have been under sustained pressure from higher interest rates‚ tighter lending criteria and rising inflation‚ as a severe drought has driven up food prices and rand weakness earlier this year drove up the prices of imports.
Some respite has come in the form of falling fuel prices — the petrol price fell 18c a litre in September and 99c in August — but economists have pointed repeatedly to low consumer confidence levels.
A survey released earlier this month showed consumers felt more financially vulnerable in the second quarter than they did in the first quarter.