Indonesia Retailers Expect Sales To Rise At Faster Rate

(RTTNews) - Indonesia's retail sales continued to expand in December, led by better demand for information and communication equipment as well as cultural and recreational goods, and retailers expected sales to maintain a positive and faster growth momentum at the start of the year, the results of a survey by Bank Indonesia showed on Thursday.

Retail sales rose 0.7 percent year-on-year in December, slower than the 1.3 percent gain in November. Sales have been rising since October last year.

On a monthly basis, retail sales growth accelerated considerably to 7.0 percent in December from 0.4 percent a month ago, supported by faster growth across all commodity groups.

Retailers predicted sales to advance at a faster pace of 1.7 percent annually in January. The uptrun is expected on the back of strong demand for food, beverages, and tobacco products.

However, retailers expect a 2.1 percent monthly contraction at the start of the year due to broad-based declines across all commodity groups as demand normalises after the Christmas national religious holiday and New Year festive period.