Not so merry Xmas
And there's the hat-trick, with retail turnover falling -0.4 per cent in December 2018, seasonally adjusted.
A real stinker, as some surveys had expected.
The previous month did admittedly show a bit of spike, related to Black Friday sales.
Annual growth in retail turnover has slowed to 2.75 per cent.
Significant monthly drops were recorded in household goods, clothing and footwear, and department stores, partly because of Black Friday promotions in the preceding months.
And only Western Australia had a merry retailing Xmas, with a tiny monthly gain.
Negative everywhere else, especially so in Canberra.
The Aussie economy gently sleepwalking into a recession.
The Reserve Bank will have some task to smear lipstick on this week's pig of a data suite, but let's see how they go this afternoon.
