Retail sales down $1.3M in April

Press, 17 June 1983, Page 2

Retail sales down $1.3M in April

PA Wellington Retail sales dropped more than $1.3 million, or 1.7 per cent in April this year compared with April last year, said the Government Statistician yesterday. The drop between March and April this year was 4.9 per cent after seasonal changes were taken into account.

The biggest drop was in the troubled car industry, where sales slumped after a March boom. Sales for last March in the automotive, fuel, and repairs group, increased 14.2 per cent over February sales, but in April they fell 7 per cent. Supermarket, household appliance, hardware, and chemist stores also faced declining sales in April over March.

The Labour Party said the figures showed that the recession was more severe than thought. Social Credit said they explained why unemployment was mounting. Labour’s associate spokesman on finance, Mr D. F. Caygill, said that because retail sales were down 1.7

per cent in money terms on April last year and prices increased 12.6 per cent in the year to March, the volume of sales must have fallen about 14 per cent. The fall seemed to be accelerating, he said.

“It is obvious that the recession is. much more severe than previously thought “The effect on the wage freeze and price and rent curb in reducing real wages and increasing unemployment has cut the living standards of the bulk of the work-force,” Mr Caygill said.

Continuing the freeze until February would push the economy further into recession, and the public had to ask why, he said. Social Credit said the figures also gave the lie to the assertion of the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, that excess liquidity had prompted the Kiwi Savings Stock.

Social Credit’s finance spokesman, Mr Les Hunter, said the economy urgently needed “controlled restimulation” to allow expansion

of business activity and growth in employment.