Australian Retail Sales & Building Approvals both lower than expected
05 February 2008
Australian Retail Sales and Buidling Approvals for December 2007 were both released today lower than generally expected.
Retail Sales (DEC) +0.5% Consensus +0.6%
Building Approvals (DEC) -16.0% Consenus -4.0%)
The Australian Dollar is slightly lower in immediate response.
The keenly awaited RBA interest rate decision will be released at 2.30 AEST today. A 25 bps rate increase is widely expected. The accompanying statement will be closely examined to determine the probaility of further rate hikes.