Australia February Retail Sales Unchanged On Month
Retail sales in Australia were relatively flat on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 0.4 percent following the 0.3 percent gain in January.
By region, there were rises in Victoria (0.4 percent), New South Wales (0.2 percent), the Australian Capital Territory (1.0 percent) and South Australia (0.3 percent).
There were falls in Queensland (-0.4 percent), Western Australia (-0.6 percent), the Northern Territory (-1.6 percent) and Tasmania (-0.5 percent).
There were rises in household goods retailing (0.4 percent), department stores (0.4 percent) and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (0.1 percent).
Food retailing (0.0 percent) was relatively unchanged, while there were falls in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.2 percent) and other retailing (-0.1 percent).
Also on Monday: . The ABS said that the total number of building approvals issued in Australia was down a seasonally adjusted 9.0 percent on year in February.
That barely beat expectations for a decline of 9.1 percent following the upwardly revised 14.5 percent contraction in the previous month (originally -15.5 percent).
On a monthly basis, approvals climbed 3.1 percent - beating forecasts for 2.5 percent following the upwardly revised 6.6 percent contraction in January (originally -7.5 percent).
The largest contributors to the overall rise in seasonally adjusted dwelling approvals by state were Tasmania (24.0 percent), New South Wales (14.4 percent) and Queensland (9.5 percent).
. Consumer prices in Australia are forecast to have risen just 1.7 percent on year in March, the latest survey from TD Securities revealed.
That's down from the forecast of 2.1 percent in February.
On a monthly basis, inflation is called flat after slipping 0.2 percent in the previous month.
. The total number of job ads in Australia was up 0.2 percent on month in March, the latest survey from ANZ showed. That follows the 1.2 percent decline in February.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com
