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MEDIA RELEASE

The retail industry is on track for record sales during the Christmas trade period, according to the latest round of retail figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The ABS figures for October 2016 reveal that retail turnover rose by 0.5 per cent, seasonally adjusted, which follows a rise of 0.6 per cent in September.

NRA Chief Executive Dominique Lamb said the figures demonstrated that retailers are set to experience a very merry Christmas in the 2016 trade period.

“The NRA has projected consumers to spend over $1 billion a day during the Christmas trade period – which encompasses the final two weeks of November and all of December – and the October figures show that the industry is well and truly on track to smash the record spend for the Christmas trade period,” Ms Lamb said.

“Retailers right around Australia should feel heartened by the October ABS figures as they demonstrate that the industry is set to experience a very Merry Christmas in 2016.”

The ABS release also revealed that every single state and territory enjoyed a rise in retail sales in trend terms for October 2016.

“In trend terms each state and territory experienced a rise for October 2016, with the strongest gains in Queensland (0.7 per cent), the Australian Capital Territory (0.6 per cent) and Victoria (0.4 per cent),” Ms Lamb said.

“Queensland recorded the strongest rise of all the states in trend terms and the NRA is predicting the sunshine state to perform strongly in December following extended trading hours for South-East Queensland that kicked into effect on December 1.

The ABS also found that categories to record sales increases for October included food retailing (0.6 per cent), household goods retailing (0.7 per cent) and other retailing (0.8 per cent).

Online retailing also performed well, contributing 3.9 per cent to total retail turnover in original terms.