The National Retail Association (NRA) believes Australian retailers are set to record the strongest year in sales since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
The NRA is reporting a year-on-year growth of 4.1% in November and is pointing to a surge of up to 6% in December 2015.
Clothing, footwear and accessories saw a 0.2% spike in consumer spending during November, while department stores saw a positive increase of 0.6%.
NRA CEO Trevor Evans said that strong consumer confidence has contributed to the spending hike.
“Feedback from our members has been that the pre-Christmas sales period was particularly strong, so we would expect to see these strong results repeated again when the December figures are published.
“Based on the information we’ve received in recent weeks, we are now projecting a total spend for the holiday period of around $45.1 billion – an increase of 5.7% compared with 2014.
“While results vary by retail category and by state, generally retailers are saying that 2015 was their best year since before the GFC.
“This is largely due to stronger consumer confidence, strong property values, low interest rates and a more encouraging political and economic environment as 2015 transpired.”
Victoria has emerged as the strongest performing state with a monthly growth of 0.6%, followed by Tasmania (0.5%), New South Wales (0.4%), South Australia (0.3%) and Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (0.2%).