The total value of goods and services sold fell 8.6 per cent in NSW and 8.5 per cent in Victoria over the three months to June in Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Wednesday. This was driven by a 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent drop in household expenditure respectively.
Victoria's quarterly spending is now back to 2017 levels and NSW has returned to lows not seen since the end of 2015.
Some of the drop is clearly due to more people staying home,unable to spend as businesses shut up shop to stop the spread of the virus.
But staying at home led to electricity spending increasing 9.7 per cent in Victoria and 7.5 per cent in NSW over the quarter. And as more people worked from home,FaceTimed with family and streamed TV,communications spending,including internet costs,jumped 4.4 per cent in Victoria and 3.6 per cent in NSW since the end of 2019.
Spending on hotels,cafes and restaurants dropped about 60 per cent while transport spending plummeted by more than 80 per cent in both states. Clothing and footwear spending was down to levels not seen since the early-2010s.
Uncertainty also played a role,with households appearing less likely to make large purchases,such as a car,and food buying remaining at elevated levels following panic buying earlier in the year.