• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

SECTION 6 CONSUMPTION

Retail

• As it is not possible to determine the trend in retail turnover through the period affected by the Government's stimulus package and other influences associated with global economic conditions, the retail trade trend series was suspended in November 2008.
• In seasonally adjusted terms, retail turnover in Western Australia rose by 1.4% in January 2009 following a larger increase (2.8%) in December 2008.
• In the preceding year, there were small fluctuations in the seasonally adjusted figures. Some of these may be related to the global financial situation in the second half of 2008 before the Australian government's economic stimulus package took effect in December.
• Apart from these recent monthly fluctuations, there has been steady growth in Western Australia's retail turnover since late 2000.

MONTHLY RETAIL TURNOVER, Current Prices - Seasonally Adjusted

• While the seasonally adjusted increase in turnover in December 2008 was spread across all areas of retail trade, increases in the following month occurred primarily in food retailing (up 5.0% or $40 million) and department stores (up 2.4% or $4 million).
• In contrast, the January turnover for household goods retailing fell by 3.9%, or $15 million, and for clothing and soft goods retailing by 2.7%, or $4 million.

16 RETAIL TRADE(a), monthly turnover - Current price: Seasonally Adjusted
		Food retailing	Department stores	Clothing and soft good retailing	Household good retailing	Other retailing	Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services	Total
Seasonally adjusted ($m)
2008
	January	755.8	171.6	139.3	366.6	300.3	262.4	1 996.0
	February	751.9	171.1	144.2	360.3	305.6	261.3	1 994.3
	March	765.0	168.0	138.8	367.9	315.2	267.8	2 022.8
	April	757.2	174.4	146.7	352.7	326.7	281.3	2 038.9
	May	769.2	172.1	144.9	353.3	330.1	279.4	2 049.1
	June	770.7	168.8	142.5	355.1	327.9	286.1	2 051.1
	July	806.6	181.5	117.5	343.1	326.4	321.6	2 096.8
	August	787.8	173.8	109.5	367.4	301.8	279.8	2 020.1
	September	842.0	178.6	113.4	373.7	349.5	293.0	2 150.2
	October	784.7	174.5	161.7	315.2	333.4	307.4	2 076.9
	November	812.0	166.6	120.6	341.5	315.2	284.1	2 040.0
	December	805.7	181.3	128.3	381.2	333.4	266.9	2 096.7
2009
	January	845.9	185.6	124.8	366.2	336.4	266.9	2 125.6
(a) For industry definitions see paragraph 6 of the Explanatory Notes in the source publications.
Source: Retail Trade, Australia, cat. no. 8501.0.
Note: As of July 2008, all historical data have been revised as a result of changes to the survey design.

• There was a steady decrease in the sales of new motor vehicles (trend) in Western Australia over the thirteen months to February 2009. In that period, the number of vehicles sold fell by more than 19% to 8,370.
• Monthly vehicle sales in Western Australia have not surpassed 10,000 since May 2008 (10,033 vehicles).

NEW MOTOR VEHICLE SALES

• In the three months to February 2009, new motor vehicle sales were almost 7% lower than in the previous three month period.
• In the three months to February 2009, a decline in sales was recorded for all vehicle types including passenger vehicles (5%), sports utility vehicles (7%) and other vehicles (10%).

17 New Motor Vehicle Sales, By type of vehicle: Trend
		Passenger vehicles	Sports utility vehicles	Other vehicles	Total vehicles
Month		no.	no.	no.	no.
Trend
2007
	December	5 636	2 194	2 553	10 382
2008
	January	5 587	2 229	2 592	10 408
	February	5 535	2 250	2 601	10 386
	March	5 490	2 237	2 579	10 306
	April	5 454	2 190	2 534	10 177
	May	5 419	2 129	2 484	10 033
	June	5 372	2 069	2 450	9 892
	July	5 284	2 020	2 443	9 747
	August	5 147	1 977	2 457	9 581
	September	4 987	1 933	2 462	9 383
	October	4 839	1 885	2 438	9 162
	November	4 724	1 829	2 373	8 926
	December	4 645	1 778	2 282	8 705
2009
	January	4 593	1 739	2 184	8 516
	February	4 566	1 712	2 093	8 370
Source: Sales of New Motor Vehicles, Australia, cat. no. 9314.0.