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The beginning of 2019 has not shown any improvement for Australian retailers, clawing only a tiny bit of sales back during the first month of the year.
According to the January retail figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) sales increased by just 0.1 per cent from December 2018.
This slight increase follows the disastrous results that came out in December 2018, where sales fell by 0.4 per cent.
The 0.1 per cent increase is also quite insignificant compared to the 0.5 per cent increase in sales Australia saw in November 2018.
Online retail continues to make up 5.6 per cent of total Australian retail, unchanged from December 2018.
At the same time last year online retail made up 4.7 per cent of total retail turnover.
The ABS notes that January's results were mixed, with rises in food retailing (by 0.3 per cent) and cafes, restaurants and takeaway services (by 0.3 per cent).
These rises were offset however by falls in department stores (by 2.1 per cent), clothing, footwear and accessories (by 0.3 per cent).
Household goods sales were relatively unchanged.
Looking around Australia there were rises in New South Wales (by 0.7 per cent), Victoria (by 0.1 per cent), Tasmania (by 0.4 per cent) and South Australia (by 0.1 per cent).
In Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and the ACT sales all fell.
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Business News Australia
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