A new GFK research report reveals that consumer spending on consumer electronics and IT goods in Australia grew by 16.2% in June and by 8.8% in the last quarter when compared with 2008.

The research group claims that the June growth rate is the highest recorded rate for any individual month so far this year. However they are tipping tough times ahead running into the peak end of year buying periods.

 Factors contributing to the growth were, end of financial year sales, the education tax refund and an unexpectedly early cold-snap said GFK who also claimed that news that Australia had officially avoided a recession in quarter 1 2009, coupled with  fairly steady unemployment statistics, is bound to have had an impact on consumer spending going forward.

GFK said that the key driver of the growth trend was the IT sector, which achieved year on year growth of 32.3%.

Small domestic appliances grew (+9.3%) and telecoms (+7.4%).

Growth in spend on photographic products, consumer electronics and major and domestic appliances was more modest at (+2-3%).

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Notebooks for school children

GFK said that the government’s education tax refund (up to $750) for families with school children was considered to be a significant factor in quarter 2’s unprecedented IT growth, which reached a peak of 44.5% in June 2009. In absolute terms, spend on IT products in quarter 2 was even higher again than that of quarter 1 (which, in turn, was higher than the Christmas season of quarter 4 2008), and 66% of the total spend was on Notebooks.

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Coinciding with the end of year financial sales, consumers used the incentive of the government tax refund to trade up to higher priced models. The result on average prices was an overall increase; Heating market

In June Gas and Electric heaters, combined with because of a cold snap in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Growth

With stimulus packages running out, interest rates remaining flat, and unemployment still forecasted to rise, there is still a great deal of caution in the Australian market-place, despite the overall growth in consumer confidence.

Predictions are that the remainder of 2009, and most of 2010 are set to be extremely tough for consumer durable suppliers and retailers