Retail sales rose 1.2 percent in January, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics report.
The slight rise follows a 0.9 percent fall in December.
Sales rose, in seasonally adjusted terms, across five industry groups – department stores (7.2 percent), clothing, footwear and other personal accessory retailing (2.9 percent), other retailing (1.4 percent), food retailing (1.3 percent) and household goods retailing (0.6 percent) and fell in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-3.1 percent).
South Australia recorded the strongest growth in sales in January with a 3.7 percent rise, followed by WA (2.6 percent), Victoria (1.5 percent), ACT (0.8 percent), Queensland (0.7 percent), NT (0.6 percent) and NSW (0.4 percent).
Meanwhile Tasmania’s growth remained unchanged.
