Retail trade has rebounded broadly in line with expectations, rising by 1.9 per cent in January.
The official measure of retail turnover dropped four per cent in December and rose by 1.7 per cent in November, with Black Friday sales and holiday spending driving some volatility in the index.
Australian Bureau of Statistics head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said growth has been relatively flat over the past few months when the volatility is accounted for.
“November, December and January are the most seasonal months of the year, with retail activity heavily affected by the Christmas period and January holidays,” Mr Dorber said.
“This has been heightened by an increase in the popularity of Black Friday sales and growing cost-of-living pressures combining to drive a change in usual consumer spending patterns.”
Turnover rose in all industries, with department stores recording the largest rise of 8.8 per cent, followed by clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, which increased by 6.5 per cent.
The ABS also released balance-of-payments data, with Australia’s current account balance hitting $14.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The September quarter account balance was revised up from a $2.3 billion deficit to a $0.8 billion surplus.
The bureau said the increase in the current account surplus reflected a rise in the trade surplus and a fall in the net primary income deficit.
“Australia’s current account surplus was supported by sustained high commodity prices over 2022, with the value of mining commodity exports reaching over $400 billion for the year,” ABS head of international statistics Grace Kim said.
The terms of trade rose by 0.6 per cent over the quarter.
Net exports are expected to add 1.1 percentage points to GDP growth in Wednesday’s national accounts.
New data also provided insights into the still-hot jobs market, with advertised salaries as measured by employment marketplace Seek climbing 4.4 per cent in the year to January.
While strong, the result was slightly below the 4.6 per cent growth recorded in the 12 months to December.
The index, which measures the change in the advertised salaries on job postings over time, has now recorded two months in a row of slowing month-on-month growth.
Seek senior economist Matt Cowgill said the moderation in advertised salary growth aligned with other easing labour market indicators such as the unemployment rate and job ad volumes.
“However, the labour market is still very tight, just not as tight as it was a few months ago,” he said.
Elsewhere, consumer confidence has been tracking well below average and returned another depressed result last week.
ANZ and Roy Morgan’s measure of consumer sentiment decreased slightly by 0.4 points to 80.
– AAP
