Boxing Day sales up on last year

Boxing Day sales brought a 12 per cent rise in the number of electronic transactions compared to last year, with more than 1.2 million transactions worth $68.3 million.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Christmas the number of transactions peaked at about three million each day.

The Retailers Federation said retail sales increased in the year to September 30 by 4.4 per cent in dollar terms, compared with 6.9 per cent for the same period in 2005.

Without counting car sales, growth was 5.2 per cent. Retails sales now exceeded $60 billion a year.