South Africa’s retail sales rise 3.2% year-on-year in October

South African retail sales rose by 3.2 percent year-on-year in October, lagging market expectations, after increasing by a revised 5.7 percent in September, data from the statistics office showed on Wednesday.

A shopper walks past a Foschini store at a shopping centre in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, file. Siphiwe Sibeko
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 5.3 percent year-on-year increase in retail sales in October.

On a month-on-month basis, sales were down 0.1 percent and rose 4.7 percent in the three months to October compared with the same period last year, Statistics South Africa said.