Forex - Australian retail sales increase in May, beat expectations. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

July 2, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Forex - Australian retail sales increase in May, beat expectations.

Australian retail sales edged up in May according to a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today. May seasonally adjusted retail sales increased by 0.7 percent after retail sales registered a revised 0.1 percent decline in April and a revised increase of 0.3 percent in March. The retail sales data surpassed economic forecasts which were predicting a 0.1 percent increase for the month. Leading contributors to the increased retail sales data were recreational good retailing and other retailing as these sectors increased by 2.2 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. Food retailing and hospitality and services also contributed positively to the data. The negative contributors for the month were department stores with -0.8 percent, household good retailing with -1.0 percent and clothing and soft good retailing with -0.3 percent. The Australian dollar reacted positively in the currency trading markets after the release of the data. The AUD/USD has been in positive territory for the day and trading back above 0.9620 and close to a multi decade high.

Tags: retail sales, australia, aud, currency trading

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