South Africa's retail sales declined for the fourth straight month in March, and at a faster pace than in the previous month, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday.
Retail sales fell an unadjusted 1.6 percent year-on-year in March, following a 0.7 percent decrease in February. The expected decrease was 0.7 percent.
Sales of food, beverages, and tobacco in specialized stores fell the most by 6.6 percent annually in March, and those of hardware, paint, and glass dropped 3.9 percent.
On the other hand, sales of textiles, clothing, footwear, and leather goods showed a positive growth of 6.3 percent.
On a monthly basis, retail sales slid a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent in March after a 0.3 percent decrease in February.
In the three months to March, retail sales advanced 0.8 percent from the preceding three months.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
