Australians are spending less on clothing, liquor and furniture as their spending grinds to a halt amongst the cost-of-living crisis, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The bureau released its May 2024 breakdown of retail turnover on Wednesday and found spending had flatlined across a number of different industries compared with the year prior.
[embed twitter]The decline in spending has been felt across department stores and homeware retailers most acutely, but cafes, restaurants and grocers have continued to buck the trend.
ABS spokesman Robert Ewing said overall while retail spending has increased, it's at a slower rate than months prior at 1.7 per cent.
"When we consider the pace at which prices are changing, that's a relatively subdued rate of growth," he said.
"That suggests consumers are overall consuming less than they were 12 months ago, because prices have risen by more.
"Recently, we've seen that kind of yearly increase as high as 19 per cent, so what we're seeing now is a substantial slowing across retail, and we've been seeing that consistently for the past 12 months."
The biggest spending changes over the course of the year were recorded in the food and liquor industry, and in online retail spaces.
"Food retailers do tend to make up a very big share of the overall basket," he said.
Mr Ewing said there was also a unique industry that continued to record growth.
"The second largest contribution has been from pharmaceutical goods."
While the figures do not break down individual product expenses, Mr Ewing said it was fair to say the cost of living had impacted many areas of Australia's discretionary spending.
"The largest fall has been in that area of department stores," he said.
"We've also seen household goods retailers are pretty flat overall, and clothing has been slightly down over the 12 months as well."
Mr Ewing said while some overall cost of some goods had gone up, the rate of spending has seriously gone down.
Keeping an eye out for a bargain
Spending across the country has been slowing significantly due to a range of cost of living pressures, including inflation, increased demand and soaring interest rates.
Mr Ewing said the current climate meant many Australians were becoming more discerning about what they spent their money on.
"When we talk to the retailers, what we've increasingly found is that businesses in areas such as cars, clothing, household goods, appliances, those sorts of things — they're finding that consumers are looking for discounts and a bargain before they spend money, and they're being very picky," he said.
"They're slowing their spending down, and what we've seen is that the occasional growth in retail spending has been in line with sales and events."
