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Retail sales grow for fourth straight month, pushed by fuel purchases
Preliminary data from Bank Indonesia (BI) show that Indonesia’s retail sales were projected to grow for the fourth month in a row in December as the country entered the Christmas and New Year holiday season.
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A woman sells fruits at a stall at Gandok Market in Bandung, West Java. (JP/Anindito Ariwandono )
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reliminary data from Bank Indonesia (BI) show that Indonesia’s retail sales were projected to grow for the fourth month in a row in December as the country entered the Christmas and New Year holiday season.
The retail sales index (RSI) was projected to rise by 4.8 percent to 217.9 points in December from a reading of 207.9 points in the preceding month, according to the central bank data released on Wednesday.
“The retail sales performance in December 2023 is expected to remain strong. That was reflected in the December RSI,” BI official Erwin Haryono said in a press statement released on Wednesday.
The country logged an RSI of 201.1 points in September, and the number then gradually increased up until the end of the year. The strongest monthly growth was seen from November to December, which Erwin attributed to rising domestic demand during the festive season.
He went on to say that retailers offering discounts helped boost sales.
Amid the overall increase in retail sales, fuel sales saw the biggest gains, with the corresponding subindex jumping to 108 points in December from 102.6 points the previous month. Much like the RSI overall, fuel sales have been growing steadily since September.
Erwin pointed out that sales of food, beverages and tobacco contributed a lot to the month-to-month (mtm) and year-on-year (yoy) RSI gain, with the subindex for this goods category projected to reach 296.8 points in December, up from to the readings of 283.6 and 289.1, respectively, for November 2023 and December 2022.
