The total value of retail sales in Australia added a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent on month in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, coming in at A$24.126 billion.
That was shy of forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent and down from the 0.7 percent gain in February and the 0.5 percent increase in January.
The largest contributor to the rise came from department stores (3.8 percent), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (2.2 percent), food retailing (0.4 percent) and other retailing (0.1 percent).
There were falls in household goods retailing (-1.0 percent) and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-1.1 percent).
By region, there were rises in Queensland (0.7 percent), New South Wales (0.3 percent), Victoria (0.2 percent), South Australia (0.3 percent) and Tasmania (0.5 percent).
There were falls in Western Australia (-0.3 percent), the Australian Capital Territory (-0.5 percent) and the Northern Territory (-0.8 percent).
Online retail turnover contributed 3.0 percent to total retail turnover.
For the first quarter of 2015, retail sales were up 0.7 percent on quarter to A$69.788 billion – also below forecasts for 0.8 percent following the 1.5 percent jump in the previous three months.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com