AUD higher as strong retail sales counter RBA statement
2 July 2008
Australian retail sales rose 0.7% in May to a seasonally adjusted $20.240 billion. It was well above the market forecast of a 0.2% increase.
Industries that had an increase in the seasonally adjusted estimate were food retailing (+1.0%), recreational good retailing (+2.2%), other retailing (+3.1%) and hospitality and services (+0.8%). Department stores (-0.8%), clothing and soft good retailing (-0.3%) and household good retailing (-1.0%) decreased.
The AUD closed higher after the data raised expectations of more interest rate increases.