JOHANNESBURG - Retail trade sales for June 2019 increased by 2.4 percent year-on-year, marginally above the 2.3 percent year-on-year recorded in May, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
This was slightly ahead of market expectation of a 2.3 percent year-on-year increase.
A disaggregation of the data shows that chief among the contributing categories to this improvement were clothing and footwear, general dealers and other retailers. In contrast, volumes in the hardware, paint and glass category continued to slide.
The seasonally adjusted retail trade sales increased moderately by 0.3 percent in June, versus 0.1 percent recorded in the previous month.
This means that the second quarter seasonally adjusted and annualised retail trade sales rebounded by 4.4 percent quarter-to-quarter, following a contraction of 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter.
As such, the retail sector will contribute positively to GDP in the second quarter.
Retail trade sales for June 2019 increased by 2.4 percent year-on-year, marginally above the 2.3 percent year-on-year recorded in May. African News Agency (ANA)