{"id":32887,"date":"2025-09-20T07:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T07:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/32887\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T07:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T07:42:09","slug":"retail-sales-up-0-5-as-summer-sun-keeps-shoppers-buying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/32887\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail sales up 0.5% as summer sun keeps shoppers buying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retail sales rose by 0.5 per cent in August in the best three-month streak since 2021, as shoppers were encouraged by summer weather to spend on clothing and food. <\/p>\n

The monthly measure for retail sales was in line with expectations and follows a 0.5 per cent expansion in July, revised down from an initial estimate of 0.6 per cent. Over three months to August sales volumes fell by 0.1 per cent compared with the previous rolling quarter, the Office for National Statistics<\/a> (ONS) said. <\/p>\n

Retail sales<\/a> are a closely watched early indicator of economic growth and August\u2019s monthly expansion is the third consecutive expansion, the ONS said. When fuel sales are excluded, volumes rose by 0.8 per cent last month.<\/p>\n

Most big high street sectors recorded rising monthly sales: department stores had a 1.1 per cent increase after a decline of 1.5 per cent in July; sales at other non-food retailers were up by 1.4 per cent; clothing and footwear rose 1.3 per cent; and online sales were up by 0.4 per cent. <\/p>\n

Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, said the rise in monthly retail sales from June to August was the best run since 2021 but \u201cthe bigger picture remains challenging\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cSales volumes are still below 2019 levels, held back by cost-of-living pressures, higher borrowing costs and weak consumer confidence. There also appears to have been a structural post-Covid shift in spending patterns away from \u2018stuff\u2019 \u2014 durable goods \u2014 and towards \u2018fun\u2019 \u2014 consumer services \u2014 that could cap retail growth even if conditions improve.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hannah Finselbach, senior statistician at the ONS, said retailers had said sales had probably been boosted by good weather last month. When measured over three months, retail sales fell because of weaker sales at second-hand retailers such as auction houses and antiques dealers and a decline in computers and telecoms equipment. <\/p>\n

Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said retail sales were likely to add 0.04 percentage points to growth in the third quarter. Growth was stagnant at 0 per cent in July, and GDP rose by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

\u2022 UK economy shows zero growth in July<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe consumers\u2019 confidence sub-balance most strongly correlated with retail sales growth is the major purchase intentions balance, and that points to retail sales volumes growth just shy of 2 per cent year-over-year,\u201d Wood said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, the ONS lifestyle survey \u2014 backed up by hard data like the Bank of England\u2019s money and credit figures \u2014 shows that households have rebuilt their rainy day savings and are cutting back on the amount of money they squirrel away each month, which should help support spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sagar Shah, at McKinsey & Company, said retailers had benefited from shoppers \u201cgrabbing end-of-season bargains and parents shopping for the new academic year\u201d. <\/p>\n

Oliver Vernon-Harcourt, head of retail at Deloitte, said retailers were heading into the final months of the year, known as the \u201cgolden quarter\u201d leading up to Christmas. \u201cThe change of the seasons in September should no doubt encourage consumers to purchase items for their winter wardrobes, but many businesses will be hoping that rain doesn\u2019t deter shoppers from the high street,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail sales rose by 0.5 per cent in August in the best three-month streak since 2021, as shoppers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-32887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}