Australian retail sales posted their weakest result of the year sliding by 0.1% in April, a much weaker outcome than the 0.3% rise expected. Annual growth slowed from 4.3% to 3.8%. A strong rebound in sales in Queensland (1.4%) after Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March was unable to drive a rise in the national figure due to weakness in other major states. The timing of Easter and other public holidays that fell in April may have contributed to the weak result. At the category level, warmer weather weighed on clothing sales in April (-2.5%) while food sales normalised (-0.3%) after being boosted in March by stockpiling in Queensland ahead of TC Alfred. Weakness in spending by households in the absence of discounting keeps further RBA rate cuts on the table.
After coming off a 0.3% rise in March, national retail sales declined by 0.1% in April to come in at $37.2bn. This was the weakest outcome since December last year, defying expectations to rise by 0.3%. Momentum in retail spending has been weak in 2025; sales growth over the 3 months to April averaged just 0.1% and was flat across the discretionary categories. Measures including the Stage 3 tax cuts, energy bill rebates and RBA rate cuts look to be staving off further weakness rather than boosting demand.
The profile of sales in April showed the decline in turnover was driven by food (-0.3%), clothing and footwear (-2.5%) and department stores (-2.5%). The ABS noted in today's release that its liaison with retailers had identified warmer weather in April as delaying spending on winter clothing. Food sales do not often fall on a monthly basis, but the drop in April came after a strong increase in March (0.8%), a gain that was driven by a surge in supermarket spending in Queensland (1.8%) as households in the south east region stocked up ahead of TC Alfred.
Some categories rose in April, helping to moderate the overall decline in retail sales. This included household goods (0.6%), dining out (1.1%) and other retailing (0.7%). A post-cyclone boost in Queensland helped drive the gains in the first two categories.
Across the states, the rebound in Queensland (1.4%) came not only after the TC Alfred-affected decline in March (-0.4%) but also a weak outcome in February (-0.3%). The profile of monthly sales has been volatile in most states this year, except for Western Australia where sales have risen consistently - in fact sales in the west have only recorded one month-on-month decline in the past 16 months. Sales in New South Wales fell by 1% in April, a sharp drop but that looks to be more seasonally driven than anything, coinciding with the Easter period and other public holidays; the last time sales fell by a similar amount was March last year when Easter fell.
