Retail sales in Australia were up a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in April compared to the previous month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, coming in at A$19.35 billion. That was below expectations for a 0.5 percent monthly gain following the increase of 2.2 percent in March and the fall of 2.0 percent in February.
Among the individual components, clothing and soft good retailing were up 0.8 percent, followed by household good retailing ( up 3.9 percent) and other retailing ( up 0.1 percent), while food retailing (-0.2 percent), Department stores (-2.8 percent) and Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.5 percent) industries ended lower.
Among individual states, New South Wales added 1.3 percent), followed by Queensland (+0.8 percent), Tasmania (+0.5 percent) and the Australian Capital Territory (+0.9 percent). Victoria was virtually unchanged, while South Australia (-0.1 percent), Western Australia (-2.4 percent) and the Northern Territory (-4.6 percent) all decreased in April.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.