Australian Retail Market Sees Rapid Recovery Post COVID 19 Slump

Though the COVID 19 pandemic has not entirely died down, its potential has undoubtedly reduced over the past two years. New variants are coming up, but now it cannot spike that terror in people as it was causing even a year back. Medical practitioners call this phase an “Endemic,” which denotes the end of a pandemic era where people somewhat become used to a particular condition. 

The Australian retail market is also gradually recovering from the COVID 19 induced slump; people are coming out of the houses as the government lifted its stay-at-home restrictions last month. 90% double dose vaccinations are already jabbed in Australia, which is an essential contribution to the current state in the Australian retail market. Shopping malls, restaurants, and theatres are slowly taking their previous grandeur.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail sales have bounced by 4.9% against the forecast of a 2.5% rise, which is incredible. The October sales spiked to A$31.1 billion, thus giving the business investors a sigh of relief. Clothing stores reported record gains- 28%, with the departmental stores hovering around 22% gains and restaurants by 12%. Such a hike in the profit earned by the retailers is undoubtedly creating a positive impact on the country’s economic growth by leaps and bounds. The $360 billion retail sectors in Australia are all set to rebound back and take the country’s economic growth at its peak. This is a welcome boost to the country’s economy because household consumption in Australia accounts for around 55% of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product). Last year the fall in household consumption created a huge negative impact on the country’s economy. But now that the Australian retail sector is reviving, retailers are happy and satisfied with the gradual growth in retail sales.

Spending on debit and credit cards have also spiked to about 10% of what it was during the pandemic and pre-pandemic period. Christmas shopping is in full swing in Australia this year, and retailers have reported a drastic bounce in sales. 

Matthew Hassan, the senior economist at Westpac, said that such relentless shopping before Christmas could cause shortages in retail products; such shortage risks and delivery delays encourage people to shop in full swing much earlier than usual.

According to the CBA analysts, the country’s economic growth shrank by 3.5% in the last quarter, which is the second-largest fall in a year that left the nation’s economy crippled. Australia is slowly recovering, and so is the rest of the world.