Retail sales to detract from March quarter GDP

Wednesday 6 May 2015

Yesterday’s tepid retail sales, which disappointed analyst’s expectations, are likely to make a negative contribution to Australia’s March quarter GDP when the national accounts are released early next month.

As reported yesterday, monthly sales values registered 0.3% growth in March on a seasonally-adjusted basis, which was below analyst’s expectations of 0.4% growth. However, in quarterly real chain volume terms, retail sales rose by 0.7%, which was below the December quarter’s 1.2% growth (see next chart).

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.