21.01.202108:22:00UTC+00South Africa Retail Sales Fall More Than Expected

South Africa's retail sales continued to fall in November and at a faster-than-expected pace, preliminary data from Statistics South Africa showed on Thursday.

Retail sales decreased 4.0 percent year-on-year after a 2.3 percent decline in October. Economists had forecast a 2.5 percent fall.

The pace of decline grew faster after slowing in each of the previous three months.

In November, the biggest annual declines of 26.1 percent and 5.6 percent were recorded for all 'other' retailers and retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, the agency said.

Compared to the previous month, retail sales grew 1.8 percent in November after a 0.5 percent fall in October.

In the three months ended November, seasonally adjusted retail trade sales grew 4.3 percent compared with the previous three months.

Separately, the statistical office reported that the wholesale trade sales decreased 2.2 percent year-on-year in November after a 4.6 percent fall in the previous month.

On a month-on-month basis, wholesale sales grew 1.4 percent following a 2.0 percent decline in October.