The consumer has not been a star in Australia for many, many quarters.

But a better sign today with Nov retail sales coming in at +0.9% m/m

  • expected 0.4%, prior 0.0% revised to 0.1%

AUD marked higher immediately on this large beat.

The data is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, they add:

  • "We have seen strong growth in Black Friday sales, both in areas such as electrical goods and online sales, but also in areas such as clothing and furniture," said Ben James, Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys. "While seasonal adjustment removes regular seasonal patterns associated with Black Friday based on prior results, the strong seasonally adjusted rises in a number of sub-groups this month shows that the impact of this Black Friday exceeded that of previous years."

A nice jump for sales, I think the comments from the ABS might have nailed the reasoning. In a month we'll get December data, that is going to be impacted by the beginning of the bushfires that have persisted now for over a month. So the January data will be impacted as well. Enjoy this data point while it lasts is the sad opinion from me.

Once rebuilding occurs there should be a pick up. That is months away.