Cafes, restaurants, higher prices boost Feb retail spending

28 March 2022

 

Summary: Retail sales up 1.8% in February; greater than 0.9% expected; up 9.1% on annual basis; increase led by spending on discretionary items; some gains “likely due to higher prices”; largest influence on month from restaurants, cafes. Growth figures of domestic retail sales spent most of the 2010s at levels below the post-1992 average. While economic conditions had been generally favourable, wage growth and inflation rates were low. Expenditures on...

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