From the Australian Bureau of Statistics, December Retail Sales FLAT

  • 0.4% expected and prior also 0.4%

Also:

Retail sales excl inflation for Q4 0.6%

  • expected 0.9% and prior was 0.5%, revised from 0.6%

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Poor result from retail sales, a miss on expectations, quite a big miss indeed.

AUD dipped and has come back, though a little heavy as I update:

Added:

Non food retail sales showed a contraction in December

  • Down 0.3%
  • Household goods down 1% and 'other' retail down 0.9%

Annual growth in real retail sales dipped to 2.5%

  • Trend growth 2.1% annual pace

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ps.

Says WPAC:

The report is particularly disappointing given the reasonably solid lead-in to the Christmas sales period from consumer sentiment and relatively upbeat reports from private sector business surveys.

The weak result may reflect some impact on cash flows from mortgage rate increases late last year, but the weakness of discretionary segments in the Dec month suggests there may also have been a loss of confidence late in the year.