Despite yesterday’s tepid retail sales, which disappointed analyst’s expectations, they are still likely to make a positive contribution to Australia’s December quarter GDP when the national accounts are released early next month.
As reported yesterday, monthly sales values registered 0.2% growth in December on a seasonally-adjusted basis, which was below analyst’s expectations of 0.3% growth. However, in quarterly real chain volume terms, retail sales rose by 1.5%, which was above the September quarter’s 0.9% growth (see next chart).
