Australia Retail Sales (Aug. 22)

The eight consecutive rise in retail sales in August will convince the RBA to hike rates by another 50bp at next week’s meeting. The 0.6% m/m increase in retail sales values in August was a little stronger than the analyst consensus of 0.4% and left sales up by a blistering 19.2% y/y, the second-largest increase in the 39-year history of the survey. There was no clear pattern among categories. Household good sales jumped by 2.6% m/m even as house prices fell at the fastest pace in 40 years and home sales continued to weaken. And both grocery sales and sales at café and restaurants rose by around 1% m/m. Meanwhile, the 2.3% m/m drop in clothing sales didn’t come as a big surprise as clothing sales were up 53% y/y in July.