October retail spending up 0.6%; back above population growth

Summary: Retail sales up 0.6% in October, more than expected; up 3.4% on 12-month basis; Westpac: implies steady recovery in nominal per capita spending; short-term ACGB yields rise modestly, longer-terms yields steady; rate-cut expectations soften; Westpac: expect spending growth to recover from here; largest influence on result from “Other” segment. Growth figures of domestic retail sales spent most of the 2010s at levels below the post-1992 average. While economic conditions...

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