Australian consumer spending cooled slightly during the Christmas period, bringing down the volume of retail sales for the first time in 11 months.
Retail trade fell 3.9 per cent in December after having risen by 1.7 per cent in November, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Nevertheless, retail turnover remained at a high level after rising 7.5 per cent from December 2021 during a record year for spending.
ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said the 3.9 per cent month-on-month drop in retail trade in the final month of 2022 suggested cost-of-living pressures were affecting Australians’ purchasing power.
“ Retail businesses reported that many consumers had responded to these pressures by doing more Christmas shopping in November to take advantage of heavy promotional activity and discounting as part of the Black Friday sales event,” Mr Dorber said.
“While there was a strong rise in original terms for December, as is expected in the lead up to Christmas, this year’s rise in original terms was smaller than those typically seen in past December months.
“This has led to the large seasonally adjusted fall.”
The Reserve Bank of Australia will be keeping an eye on the retail trade data to see if its eight successive interest rate hikes have had a cooling effect on the economy.
The central bank board is widely expected to raise the cash rate by another 25 basis points when it meets early next month.
