Australia Retail Sales Jump in October
Australian retail sale jumped in October following months of weak demand, which is a positive indication for spending in the upcoming holiday season.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail sales increased 0.5 percent in October from September, the highest since May. Sales in September only rose by a revised 0.1 percent.
Sales grew across every sector with clothing and eating out particularly strong.
The country's brick-and-mortar retailers have been struggling amid cutthroat competition and as fierce price discounts fail to attract customers facing meager wage growth and mountains of debt.
However, the ABS does not yet include online data in its headline retail series despite it accounting for over seven percent of overall sales.
Figures for gross domestic product, set to be released on Wednesday, are expected to show Australia's economy growing by 0.7 percent in the third quarter from the quarter earlier.
This would see annual expansion picking up to three percent, with a rare contraction from the third quarter of 2016 falling out of the calculation.
The acceleration is a major reason the Reserve Bank of Australia is considered certain to keep interest rates at 1.5 percent at its last policy meeting of the year on Tuesday.
News are provided byInstaForex.