Slump
Oh dear, well this wasn't very good at all!
Retail turnover fell by -0.6 per cent in August 2017, and the prior month was revised down to a -0.2 per cent decline as well.
That makes it four declines in 7 months, which is somewhat inauspicious.
Year-on-year growth in retail turnover slowed to +2.13 per cent, and that's the slowest rate of growth since June 2013.
Department stores fared a little better in the month, but overall have been copping a shellacking.
And this is being reflected in the stock prices of a number of high street retailers.
Note the negative monthly and quarterly results for household goods too.
Discretionary spend on eating out has declined over the past quarter, although this does come off the back of a decade of extraordinary increases.
Consumers are still spending online, to some extent, but still this was an unquestionably weak result.
So much for those looming rate hikes!
The Aussie dollar slipped a bit on the results.
