Melbourne’s lockdown drove a sharp drop in national retail turnover in August

Victorian retail spending plunged 13 per cent in August as Melbourne’s lockdown forced businesses to close and shoppers to stay at home. The state’s heightened restrictions, which included curfews in the state’s capital and limits to how far residents could move from their homes, helped end a three-month retail recovery as national turnover dropped by 4 per cent in the month, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.