David Jones’ city, suburban and regional stores have experienced double-digit sales retreats – some as much as 30 per cent – following a sharp deterioration in consumer confidence brought on by rising interest rates and a hit to household budgets.
The decision by the Reserve Bank to push up the official interest rate in May and June is being blamed for much of the lightning-fast reversal in sales growth as the department store owner grapples with a consumer facing dwindling discretionary spending power.
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
