Retail sales in Australia fell for the first time in three months in March as consumer spending on household goods as well as clothing, footwear and personal accessories decreased compared to the previous month, the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.
Retail sales dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent month-on-month in March, following 1.3 percent growth in each of the past two months. Economists were looking for 0.1 percent growth.
Household goods retailing dropped 1.5 percent in March while spending on clothing, footwear and personal accessory slipped 4.2 percent.
Sales at department stores edged down 0.1 percent from February, while the growth in food sales slowed to 0.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the Australian Financial Review reported Monday that the Treasury has downgraded its economic growth forecast for this year and the next by a quarter of a percentage point. The government is due to deliver its latest economic forecasts in the May 14 budget.
According to the newspaper, the Treasury has reduced its GDP growth forecast for 2012-13 and 2013-14 to 2.75 percent from the 3 percent projected for both years in its October Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. "This is a Budget being put together in very challenging fiscal circumstances," Treasurer Wayne Swan said in his weekly economic note on Sunday. "Revenues have taken a huge whack since our last budget update in the latter part of last year," he said.
"Although commodity prices have improved from their low levels in late 2012, we face the unusual situation of a stubbornly high dollar in the face of a lower terms of trade," Swan said, adding that this combination has put more acute and widespread pressure on company profits than previously expected.
The Reserve Bank of Australia will deliver its monetary policy decision on May 7 and is widely expected to keep the cash rate steady at 3 percent. The RBA is scheduled to release its latest economic forecasts on May 10.
Separately, a survey by ANZ revealed Monday that the number job advertisements in the country fell 1.3 percent month-on-month in April following a 0.5 percent decline in March.
In another report, TD Securities and the Melbourne Institute said their monthly inflation gauge rose 2.1 percent year-on-year in April, but remained comfortably within the central bank's 2-3 percent target. On a monthly basis, the gauge rose 0.3 percent.
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