{"id":711566,"date":"2023-08-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=711566"},"modified":"2023-08-16T17:34:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T15:34:56","slug":"retailers-are-on-their-knees-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/711566\/retailers-are-on-their-knees-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Retailers are on their knees in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Retail sales in South Africa have recorded another year-on-year decline for June 2023, with retailers expected to have a tough couple of months ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA, retail sales volumes dropped by 0.9% year-on-year in June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is, however, a slight improvement from the 1.6% seen in May (revised downwards from -1.4%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siphamandla Mkhwanazi, FNB Senior Economist, said that the outcome was worse than the Reuters consensus expectation of -0.2% and is the seventh consecutive month of annual decline in sales volumes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on a month-to-month basis, seasonally adjusted volumes recovered by 0.2% after a 0.9% month-on-month decline in May (revised lower from -0.7%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The marginal lift was likely supported by the unexpected load-shedding reprieve and the near R1 fuel price relief in June,” Mkhwanazi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nevertheless, volumes contracted by 1% compared to the previous quarter, signifying that the retail industry will detract from 2Q23 GDP growth, in contrast to the energy-intensive mining and manufacturing sectors, that will likely contribute positively to growth in that quarter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This underscores the challenging consumer backdrop, characterised by high debt and living costs, as well as suppressed consumer sentiment.” <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Per industry <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five of the seven categories measured by Stats SA saw an annual decline in volumes, with the biggest decline seen amongst General dealers (-2.7% year-on-year, contributing -1.2ppts)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardware material (-4.4% year-on-year, -0.4ppts), Other retailers (-1.6% year-on-year), Household furniture (-1.5% year-on-year) and Pharmaceutical retailers (-1.4% year-on-year) also saw declines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, Clothing and footwear retailers (5.8% year-on-year) and Food and beverages retailers (1.0% year-on-year) both saw growth. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Outlook<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Credit data suggests that consumers are still accumulating consumption credit at a relatively faster pace, though the trend has plateaued in the last few months,” Mkhwanazi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“National Credit Regulator data further reveals a strong increase in the issuance of store and credit cards in non-bank sectors- both geared towards consumption.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, FNB expects lending standards to tighten as the effect of past interest rate decisions filters through and limits shopping activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mkhwanazi added that this, on top of declining consumer confidence, indicates that there will be suppressed growth in household consumption expenditure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: A bright turn for South Africa \u2013 with a catch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retail sales continue to suffer in South Africa, according to data from Stats SA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":711584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-711566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711588,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711566\/revisions\/711588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}