Australia: Online Retail Sales Index contracted -1.4% in December - NAB

Analysts at NAB point out that the Australia’s NAB Online Retail Sales Index contracted -1.4% in December on a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, down from a 2.9% increase in November.

Key Quotes

“The weak result for December was heavily impacted by considerable growth in November.”

“The NAB Online Retail Sales Index was up 9.0% year-on-year in December. Year-on-year growth is positive for seven of the eight NAB Online Retail Sales Index industry groupings.”

“We estimate that in the 12 months to December, Australians spent $28.6 billion on online retail. – a level that is equivalent to around 8.9% of the traditional bricks and mortar retail sector (which totalled almost $320.1 billion in the year to November 2018 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics).”