Australian retail sales rebound strongly in February

Australian retail sales rebounded strongly in the month of February, following a couple of subdued months. Sequentially, retail sales were up 0.8 percent, coming in above market expectations. On a year-on-year basis, sales growth accelerated to 3.2 percent from January’s 2.7 percent. This represents a rebound from subdued sales growth seen in December and January.

Department stores led the sequential growth in discretionary spending at 3.5 percent, while clothing and sales rose 1.6 percent and household goods rose 1.1 percent. Food sales rose 0.8 percent sequentially, lifting the annual growth to 4.9 percent. On the contrary, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food spending came in flat in February, noted ANZ in a research report.

Strength in sales was comparatively widespread throughout the states and territories. Queensland recorded the largest gain of 1.4 percent, while sales in New South Wales and Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia were also strong. Tasmania recorded the only drop.

At 12:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Australian Dollar was bullish at 79.0654 while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was bearish at -83.6756 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex