Australia: Retail sales surged 0.4% in Nov - TDS

Analysts at TD Securities note that the Australian retail sales rose 0.4%/m in Nov, better than the 0.3%/m market forecast.

Key Quotes

“The headline number was boosted by Household good retailing (+1.2%) and Clothing/footwear, industries that were the main focus of Black Friday promotional activity, helping lift retail sales ex-food +0.6%/m.”

“Most other industries added to retail sales and activity by state was up in most states as well, with NSW (+0.8%) and QLD (+0.4%) leading the gains. Today’s outcome has retail sales growing steadily at 0.6% qtr/qtr, a level consistent over recent months, but off from higher levels seen in 2018. Given the reasonable result for Nov, the question is whether promotional activity brought forward activity in Dec.”