Media Release

Date: 13 February 2003

SUBJECT: A Good Christmas for Retailing

The retail results for December are much in line with our expectations and generally confirm that the industry had a good Christmas says John Albertson, CEO of the New Zealand Retailers Association.

The figures show that trading in December increased by 7.4% over December 2001.

When motor vehicle figures are excluded, general merchandise sales increased by 7.1%.

Sales of big ticket items showed significant growth in December which is clearly interrelated with the increase in building permits which were up by 69.1% for the month compared with December 2001.

Viewed in a broader context, retail sales increased by 7.3% in the October-December 2002 period and 7.9% in the 2002 calendar year.

Our latest opinion survey of the major chain stores also indicates reasonable trading levels are being achieved.

The majority of survey respondents reported:

• better trading levels in the October-December period than in the same period in 2001. 
• their stock levels were 'just right' in the October- December 2002 period compared to the same quarter last year;
• liquidity had improved in the October-December 2002 quarter compared to the same quarter last year; but
• expected flatter trading in the January-March 2003 period compared to the October-December 2002 quarter.

We are still of the opinion that retail sales will increase by about 5% in the 2003 calendar year unless there are significant international developments that cause a major disruption in international trade flows, concluded Mr Albertson