By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Statistics South Africa published retail sales data, which showed that sales rose 2.9% year-on-year in October after rising by a revised 3.0% in September.
Economists polled by Reuters had predicted a 2.3% rise.
The textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods category was the biggest contributor, rising 5.8% and adding a percentage point to the headline figure. Strong growth also came from “other” retailers, which increased 7.2%, and from household furniture, appliances and equipment, which jumped 13%. Hardware, paint and glass sales were up 5.8%, supported by improving sentiment among hardware retailers in the third quarter.
Food, beverage and tobacco retailers in specialised stores fell 1.9%, continuing a trend of weaker performance in food-focused categories.
Month on month, seasonally adjusted retail sales rose 0.9% in October, breaking a two-month slide after declines of 0.1% in September and 1.6% in August.
“Consumers are benefiting from relatively low inflation, although this tailwind has already faded, quite notably in the last few months. There’s also some support from quite robust growth in the government wage bill this year, underpinned by above-inflation wage increases,” Elna Moolman, Standard Bank Group Head of South Africa Macroeconomic Research.
Moolman added that consumers had further benefited from 1.5 percentage points of interest rate cuts over the past year. “We still expect further interest rate relief next year, though this will probably occur quite gradually, “Moolman said.