Australia retail sales rise more than expected in May By Investing.com

Investing.com– Australian retail sales grew more than expected in May, boosted chiefly by bargain hunting as retailers took advantage of end-of-the financial year promotions and sales. 

But overall spending still remained stagnant, as high inflation and interest rates saw consumer spending slow sharply over the past year. 

grew 0.6% month-on-month in May, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. The reading was higher than expectations for a rise of 0.3% and picked up from the 0.1% seen in the prior month. 

Sales were also largely stagnant from May 2023. 

“Retail businesses continue to rely on discounting and sales events to stimulate discretionary spending, following restrained spending in recent months.Despite the seasonally adjusted rise, underlying spending remains stagnant,” Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics said in a statement. 

Still, the mild increases in retail spending indicated that Australian consumers still retained some resilience- a trend that could factor into a sticky outlook for inflation.

Australian inflation read higher than expected for three consecutive months, ramping up expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia will need to potentially hike interest rates again to bring down price pressures. 

The Australian dollar’s pair rose 0.1% after Wednesday’s retail data.