Australia retail sales dropped -0.5% mom in December, worse than expectation of -0.2% mom. Though, that was not enough to offset November’s strong 1.0% mom rise. The following states and territories fell in seasonally adjusted terms in December 2019: New South Wales (-1.2%), Queensland (-0.5%), South Australia (-1.3%), the Northern Territory (-0.4%), and the Australian Capital Territory (-0.1%). Victoria (0.0%) and Western Australia (0.0%) were relatively unchanged, while Tasmania (1.1%) rose.
In seasonally adjusted terms, exports of goods and services rose AUD 557m to AUD 41.29B. Import of goods and services rose AUD 853m to AUD 36.07B. Trade surplus narrowed slightly to AUD 5.22B, smaller than expectation of AUD 5.60B.
