Household spending appetite being “sapped”; August retail sales up 0.2%

28 September 2023

 

Summary: Retail sales up 0.2% in August, less than expected; up 1.5% on 12-month basis; ANZ: environment sapping households’ appetite to spend; Westpac: sizeable decline in real terms; largest influence on result from clothing sales. 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 goods then...

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