Household spending has been hit by the economic downturn, the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) said on Thursday in its June Quarterly Bulletin.

Household expenditure fell by 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009, following a 2.7 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2008, the SARB said.

Households' real expenditure on durable goods continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2009 – the sixth successive quarterly contraction, the SARB noted.

"Following negative growth of 20.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, real spending on durable goods declined at an annualised rate of 19.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009."

The SARB said lower spending on most categories of durable goods reflected the "financial stress" experienced by the household sector and low confidence levels among consumers.

Spending on semi-durable goods contracted for the first time in ten years.

"Subsequent to an annualised growth rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, real expenditure on semi-durable goods contracted at a rate of 7.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009."

The SARB said in particular, declines were noted in expenditure on clothing and footwear; and household textiles, furnishings and glassware.

The SARB added that spending on food and other non-durable items fell an annualised 12.2 percent after declining 2.3 percent in the final quarter of 2008.

The steepest declines were evident in spending on medical and pharmaceutical products, food, beverages and tobacco, and other non-durable household requisites, the SARB noted.

By contrast, expenditure on petroleum products inched higher from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009.

Sapa