Retail sales rebounded in November with solid lifts in spending on clothing, household goods and at department stores during Black Friday sales, but economists say December's figures will provide a fuller picture.
The Black Friday shopping event has been adopted by Australian retailers in recent years, having grown out of the US post-Thanksgiving sales, and expanded online with Cyber Monday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show a 0.9 per cent rise in retail turnover in November, a stronger-than-expected increase and an improvement on tepid sales in October.
The ABS said the main increases were in sales of clothing, footwear and accessories (+3.1pc), household goods (+1.2pc) and at department stores (+3.4pc).
"We have seen strong growth in Black Friday sales, both in areas such as electrical goods and online sales, but also in areas such as clothing and furniture," said Ben James from the ABS.
"While seasonal adjustment removes regular seasonal patterns associated with Black Friday based on prior results, the strong seasonally adjusted rises in a number of sub-groups this month shows that the impact of this Black Friday exceeded that of previous years."
Christmas spend brought forward?
The initial reaction from economists has been that December's figures will need to be seen to determine if there has been an overall improvement in spending or whether Australians are now doing their Christmas shopping earlier, at a discounted price.
"The promotions mean that much of the strength in today's numbers likely reflects consumers bringing forward the timing of pre-Christmas purchases rather than spending more," said NAB economist Kaixin Owyong.
In December 2018, retail sales fell, giving back most of the rise seen in November of that year.
"From an economic perspective, it is too early to call a resurgence of consumer spending," said EY chief economist Jo Masters.
"Consumer confidence fell in December and early 2020, with households likely concerned about the impact of the current bushfires, while still facing low wages growth and elevated job insecurity."
The Australian dollar initially rallied on the release, before paring gains to be slightly higher at 68.6 US cents by 12:40pm (AEDT).
Meantime, industry research house IBISWorld noted that 'buy now, pay later' services may have also added to the sales growth in November.
"Afterpay recently reported $1 billion in underlying sales for November 2019, representing its best monthly performance since its launch," said IBISWorld senior industry analyst James Caldwell.
