Retail sales in Australia eased a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent on month in December, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, standing at A$20.884 billion.
That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.2 percent following the upwardly revised gain of 0.1 percent in November - which had an original reading of a flat performance.
Among the individual retail components, household goods added 0.5 percent, while clothing, footwear and personal accessory was up 0.9 percent, food added 0.1 percent, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services added 0.1 percent and department stores were up 0.1 percent.
By region, New South Wales was up 0.2 percent, along with Western Australia (0.5 percent), Victoria (0.1 percent) and South Australia (0.3 percent). The Australian Capital Territory (0.0 percent) was relatively unchanged. Queensland (-0.1 percent), Tasmania (-0.1 percent) and the Northern Territory (-0.1 percent) were down in December.
For the fourth quarter of 2011, retail sales added a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent compared to the previous three months, with a value of A$60.773 billion.
That also missed forecasts for a 0.6 percent increase following the 0.5 percent contraction in the third quarter.
Also on Monday, the total number of job advertisements in Australia climbed 6.0 percent on month in January, the latest survey from the ANZ Banking Group revealed. That easily erased the 0.9 percent contraction in December, and it also marked the largest increase since February 2010. On a yearly basis, total job ads climbed 0.7 percent.
The total number of internet job ads spiked 6.4 percent on month and 1.4 percent on year, while newspaper ads declined 2.6 percent on month.
Finally, TD Securities said that its index measuring consumer prices in Australia was up 2.2 percent on year in January, down from the 2.4 percent increase in December. On a monthly basis, inflation added 0.2 percent after collecting 0.5 percent in December.
The trimmed mean of the inflation gauge added 0.3 percent on month in January, unchanged from the December reading. Core inflation collected 0.2 percent on month and 2.3 percent on year.
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