Clothing and footwear has seen a 32.2% growth in household spending in January 2023 compared to the same month in 2020, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), who cited that price increases are likely to be contributing to this growth.
In the last quarter ending December 2022, the consumer price index for clothing and footwear rose 2.6% from the September 2022 quarter, and 5.3% from the December 2021 quarter.
Garments (+2.0%) and Footwear (+5.4%) rose in response to high consumer demand, according to the ABS, with the quarterly rise partially offset in November by promotional activity such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
The main contributor for growth in CPI was garments for women.
Overall household spending in January 2023 rose 17.8% compared to the same time last year, with ABS head of business indicators Robert Ewing saying there were increases across eight of the nine spending categories compared to January 2022.
“These increases were led by spending on transport (up 41.5%), hotels, cafes and restaurants (38.5%) and clothing and footwear (20.9%),” Ewing said.
“Spending on services recorded a 28.2% through-the-year increase in January 2023, which was stronger than the 8.6% rise in goods spending.”
Ewing said the overall growths in household spending can be credited to the post-COVID recovery in spending categories such as transport, hotels, restaurants, recreation and culture.
“Spending on these services was more affected by COVID restrictions, and 2022 has seen a recovery to a more normal share of total spending,” Ewing added.
“From the low point in April 2020, spending on services has risen 145.5% compared to 35.8% for goods.”
Compared to pre-pandemic data from January 2020, spending on services has increased by 13.8%, while goods spending is up 23.7% over the same period.
The rise in total household spending seen in the year to January 2023 was stronger than seen in the year to December 2022. ABS said this was partly influenced by ongoing strong spending on services but was mostly because trading conditions in the comparison month, January 2022, were restricted by the response to the COVID-19 Omicron outbreak.
Across all the states and territories, household spending increased in January 2023 compared to January 2022.
The Australian Capital Territory recorded the largest increase in spending (+20.5%), with strong growth in hotels, cafes and restaurants (+39.4%) and transport (+35.3%).
Through-the-year rises were higher in all states and territories this month compared with December’s figures. Tasmania had the largest percentage point increase in through-the-year spending, rising from 9.2% in December, to 17.9% in January.