Australia sees improvement in retail sales

The annual sales growth in Australia has come down to 4% from 4.6% in Q2 due to moderate growth rate in household goods retail. On a monthly basis, retail sales of the economy has increased by 0.5% in October, which is marginally higher than previous month.

"The monthly trend sales estimate suggests a slight improvement with annual growth lifting from a 3.6% annualised mid-year to around 3.9%yr currently", says Westpac in a research note.