Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey says he is surprised at how well sales have held up despite cost-of-living pressures.
The retailer's 198 Australian franchised complexes recorded sales of $3.34 billion in the six months to December 31, up 5.5 per cent from a year ago.
That momentum has continued into the new year, with Australian sales up 2.4 per cent in January and up 7.2 per cent in the first 21 days of February.
"I thought July-December would be pretty difficult, with all this cost-of-living thing going on, and inflation and higher interest rates and all that," Mr Harvey told AAP on Friday.
"But it wasn't - it was actually better than I thought. And it accelerated in November, December. And then I looked at January, February sales, and I thought, it's continuing. Retail's not contracting to the degree I thought it might - it's actually improving."
Mr Harvey attributed the sales resilience to rising wages, a million more people in Australia, and the third of Australians who own their own homes mortgage-free.
"The ones that are screwed are the third of the people that rent - they've got no money, and they're surviving just to pay their rent. But when you put the whole of that together, you end up with more money that's going into the economy."
Overall, Harvey Norman reported a first-half profit of $400.3 million, up 41.2 per cent from a year ago, although that was driven mostly by property revaluations. Excluding that impact, profit was up 2.2 per cent to $310.5 million.
Harvey Norman declared a fully franked dividend of 12 cents per share.
