Reuters recap of the retail sales data today from Australia. The data is here:
- Australia August Retail Sales: -0.6% m/m (vs. expected +0.3%)
- Australia August Trade Balance AUD surplus 989m (vs. expected surplus of AUD 850m)
And, more:
- Australia retail sales huge data miss - analyst responses coming in
- Australia retail sales data for August - terrible! Bounce in Sep coming? No - here's why
And, now via Reuters:
- Sluggish wages and household incomes sapped spending power
- The RBA has long feared ballooning debt in Australia's red-hot property sector was pinching consumers' ability to spend elsewhere in the economy
Michael Workman, a senior economist at CBA:
- "On the face of it, this is not good news for third quarter GDP growth,"
- "Though, it should be noted that a fall in sales this broad is very strange,"
- "We aren't hearing anything like this sort of weakness from our clients, and people are still spending on cars and services. It's just very odd."
But, says Reuters, it not all doom and gloom:
- The ABS's experimental estimates of online retail turnover jumped 6.3 percent in August and were rapidly catching up to last year's Christmas sales. The online numbers are not yet included in the headline retail series.
- A separate ABS survey of household spending this week showed Australians are shelling out more money on holidays, health insurance and school fees - none of which are reflected in the retail sales numbers.
