Retail bounce
Woop!
A brief flurry of excitement today as retail turnover jumped by a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent in February to a fresh high of $27.3 billion.
Hate to be the party pooper on this one piece of brighter news, but you still do gotta look at this in the context of the two dismal months that went before.
The trend monthly growth of 0.2 per cent gives a more realistic picture.
The trend monthly growth of 0.2 per cent gives a more realistic picture.
Looked at another way, annual retail turnover growth was modestly improved, at 3.17 per cent, but the trend growth has been meandering steadily lower.
The rebound was mainly driven by food retailing, department stores and clothing trade, and the purchase of household goods.
At the state level, Queensland had a bit of a bounce, but the two most populous states are dominant no longer as the housing downturn drags.
Summary: a better month, but in the bigger picture context...hardly amazeballs.
