The Australian restaurant and café industry had the strongest growth in January of all retail sectors, according to latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

The ABS retail figures for the month showed that the restaurant, cafés and takeaway service industry had a 2.3 per cent increase in turnover.

It was ahead of other sectors including food retailing (1.5 per cent), clothing and soft good retailing (0.8 per cent), and other retailing (0.2 per cent).

In comparison other sectors declined including department stores (-0.5 per cent), and household good retailing (-4 per cent).

John Hart, the CEO of Restaurant and Catering Australia said there was a major difference in the results for each of the states with the industry in Victoria having the strongest figures.

"Victoria basically kept the place afloat - they had a very strong January," he said. "It's event driven in Victoria, the Australian Open over that period was a fantastic event for them."

"It was absolutely booming  - if you look at the numbers you can see it very clearly."

Hart said Queensland had also had a strong January as well. "January turnover in Queensland was stronger than in NSW - which is virtually unheard of and I guess that was because of domestic tourism in Queensland."

"In NSW the January figures have been declining for the last three years."

Also just released, the ABS' snapshot of the economy for the December quarter showed expenditure on hotel, restaurants and cafes fell by one per cent.

The Australian National Accounts report showed that in comparison spending by households on food was up 0.6 per cent. Other areas to decline included alcoholic beverages (down 2.4 per cent), clothing and footwear (down 1.3 per cent), and purchase of vehicles (down 1.2 per cent).