Black Friday sales boost retail spending, despite cost-of-living crisis

BY Nathan Jolly

January 9, 2025 1:36

Black Friday sales boost retail spending, despite cost-of-living crisis

Retail sales rose across all sectors in November, prompting fresh fear that the Reserve Bank may pause any pending interest rate cuts.

Australian retail turnover rose 0.8% for the month, according to figures released on Thursday morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

All retail industries saw growth for the month, with department stores up 1.8%, clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing increasing by 1.6%, and household goods up 0.6%.

“Consumers have taken advantage of Black Friday sales once again, with discounting seen across clothing items, furniture, electrical goods and cosmetics,” Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said.

“Discounts were also seen in essential goods, with businesses in food retailing boosted by higher spending due to Black Friday price cuts and points incentives through rewards programs.”

This comes after growth of 0.5 per cent in October, 2024 and 0.4 per cent in September.

“The popularity of Black Friday sales continues to grow with promotional activity now stretching across the entire month of November, not just solely focused on the Black Friday weekend,” Ewing explained.

While this growth was behind economists’ forecast of 1%, the Reserve Bank of Australia may still keep interest rates at their current level.

“The big picture is that there appears to have been decent momentum behind consumer spending heading into 2025,” Capital Economics economist Abhijit Surya told the AFR.

“And with households’ real disposable incomes set to keep rising over the coming year, we think there’s scope for sustained gains in private consumption.”