Daily Market Digest: Australia Retail Sales, BoE Rate Decision

Market Summary

• Australia retail sales rise less than forecast at 0.10% in June
• Yen stays muted to BoJ officials’ comments on monetary policy assessment
• Chicago Fed Evans says one more rate hike in 2016 is appropriate
• Bank of England cuts interest rates to 0.25%
• BoE expands QE by 60 billion GBP
• BoE announces new Term Funding Scheme for banks
• BoE to buy 10 billion GBP in corporate bonds starting September
• US jobless claims rise 269k, more than expected

Today’s Economic events

• Australia retail sales m/m 0.10% vs. 0.30%
• Bank of England cuts interest rates to 0.25%
• BoE expands asset purchases to 435bn
• BoE Gov. Carney speech
• US initial jobless claims 269k vs. 266k

Coming Up

• The US factory orders
• Australia AIG construction index

Australia retail sales rise 0.10% in June

Retail sales in Australia grew at a slower than expected pace in June, data from Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday. The total value of retail sales advanced just 0.10% in June to 25.04 billion. This was below forecasts of a 0.30% increase and down from May’s 0.20% gain. Still, retail sales continued to post gains, now into the fifth consecutive month.

 

Australia Retail Sales 0.10% m/m, June 2016 (Source: ABS)

Clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailers added 3.50% while household goods and department store sales added 0.30% and 0.70% respectively. Offsetting the gains was a 0.60% decline in food retailing, 0.10% decline in food and other services. Online retailers added 3.40% to the total turnover.

On a quarter over quarter basis, Australia’s retail sales advanced 0.40% to 72.68 billion, which was lower than forecasts of 0.50% and down from the first quarter’s 0.50% increase. On a year over year basis, retail sales were seen to be the weakest since July 2013, rising only 2.76%. The quarterly sales volumes were also weaker, rising only 0.41%. Consumer spending is expected to pick up after the RBA cut interest rates earlier this week, lowering the benchmark rate to 1.50% and marking a second rate cut in four months. Consumer spending has been one of the biggest drivers of the Australian economy, which continued to expand at an annual rate of 3.10%, marking the fastest increase in three years.