Australia September retail sales +0.2% vs +0.4% expected

Australia September 2019 retail sales data:

• Prior was +0.4%
• Retail sales ex inflation -0.1% q/q vs +0.3% expected
• Prior q/q sales +0.2%

Poor number and AUD/USD kicks lower. It's now given up the day's gains of about a dozen pips and is unchanged.

Digging into the details, the food category was up +0.1% while apparel down -0.5% was the main drag, along with department stores (-0.2%). However that decline comes after strong numbers in both categories in August.