AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.99 (-0.77%)
BOP 6.68 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.21%)
CNERGY 4.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.39%)
DCL 8.60 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.42%)
DFML 41.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.43%)
DGKC 86.71 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.15%)
FCCL 32.16 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.06%)
FFBL 64.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.72 (-1.1%)
FFL 10.29 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.39%)
HUBC 109.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.98 (-0.89%)
HUMNL 14.90 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.02%)
KEL 5.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.56%)
KOSM 7.40 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (3.93%)
MLCF 41.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.62%)
NBP 60.60 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (0.85%)
OGDC 190.00 Decreased By ▼ -4.69 (-2.41%)
PAEL 27.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.5%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.13%)
PPL 149.75 Decreased By ▼ -1.42 (-0.94%)
PRL 26.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.56%)
PTC 16.18 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.13%)
SEARL 86.02 Increased By ▲ 7.82 (10%)
TELE 7.72 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (4.47%)
TOMCL 35.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.25%)
TPLP 8.14 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (2.91%)
TREET 16.51 Increased By ▲ 0.62 (3.9%)
TRG 53.35 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (1.12%)
UNITY 26.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-1.02%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,884 Decreased By -36.4 (-0.37%)
BR30 30,600 Decreased By -151.5 (-0.49%)
KSE100 93,355 Increased By 130.9 (0.14%)
KSE30 28,931 Increased By 46 (0.16%)

Australia's retailers enjoyed another jump in sales in October, an outcome that augers well for momentum in consumer spending going into the all-important Christmas shopping period. The 0.5 percent rise for October beat market forecasts for a 0.3 percent uptick and marked the best three month period for sales since mid-2014. That was welcome news after a run of disappointing figures this week suggested the economy had all but stalled in the third quarter.
The robust numbers will help allay concerns about the risk of a more marked slowdown, or even recession, following weak numbers on business investment and construction. Friday's data should also provide comfort to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), given the retail sector has annual sales of A$290 billion ($220 billion) and is the country's second-biggest employer with 1.25 million workers.
"It's a very solid result. It highlights that there has been a lift in overall activity. It's positive for inflation and for the economy as a whole," said Savanth Sebastian, economist at CommSec. "The outlook for the retail sector is certainly better than it was six months ago and the Reserve Bank will be quite comfortable with these results."
The Australian economy grew a brisk 3.3 percent in the year to June, but faces the risk of a contraction last quarter for the first time in almost six years. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) out on Thursday showed sharp cutbacks in business investment while other indicators of domestic activity such as wages growth and employment have been feeble.
Core inflation is already at a record low of 1.5 percent and looks like staying under the RBA's target band of 2-3 percent for some time. "This retail sales data is probably more forward looking than the recent indicators we've had. From that perspective, it looks like the economy is still doing relatively okay," Sebastian added.

Copyright Reuters, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.