TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Retail sales drop in February amid lower consumer confidence
Bank Indonesia’s latest data point to higher retail sales in February when compared to last year, but the month-to-month numbers reveal a consecutive decline, which experts attribute to seasonal factors.
Change Size
Women carry fruits and vegetables in baskets on their heads at a market in Denpasar, Bali, on Nov. 7, 2022. (AFP/David Gannon)
P
reliminary data point to annual growth in retail sales in February, but the month-to-month numbers reveal a consecutive decline that experts attribute to seasonal factors.
According to Bank Indonesia’s (BI) latest survey, retail sales in February were up an estimated 2.6 percent year-on-year (yoy) but down 1.4 percent when compared to the preceding month.
The decline comes on top of the 0.6 percent month-to-month (mtm) drop registered in January, after the January data was revised down from preliminary figures that had pointed to a 1.7 percent monthly increase.
“[These February] estimates are better than the previous months’ as they were in a contraction phase,” BI spokesman Fajar Majardi wrote in a press statement released on Thursday.
Clothing is estimated to have booked the highest sales growth last month with a 10.8 percent yoy increase, followed by the food, beverages and tobacco category at 5 percent.
The preliminary data point to declining sales across all other categories, with the biggest drop seen in automotive fuels, which were down 8.8 percent from the same period a year ago.
Sales of electronics have been declining for years in Indonesia, with full-year drops registered in 2021 and 2022.
