Highlights of January’s Retail Sales
January’s retail sales surged 7.2% y-y, a slight drop from 7.7% y-y of December 2018, Bank Indonesia survey penciled in. January’s growth revealed the growth of 27.9% y-y and 21.5% y-y in sales of clothing & cultural and recreation commodities, respectively. Both growths bolstered January’s retail sales and showed raising consumers’ appetite for spending.
January’s retail sales, on a monthly basis, weakened by 7.7%, much deeper than December’s growth 10.6% m-m. BI in its survey cautioned that the early-year seasonal cycle was a setback for January’s growth and projected February’s growth of 10.9% y-y due to the celebration of Lunar New Year of 2019.
Retail sales growths from February to March are significant readings to oversee the trend of domestic consumption for most of 2019. Based on the seasonal cycle, retail sales are likely to creep higher ahead of Eid Mubarak.
As 2019’s buoyant retail sales signified consumers’ higher appetite for spending; 2019’s surging domestic sales is expected due to 2019’s much benign inflation than that in 2018.
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