Weaker discretionary spending dragged retail sales lower in September as the stimulus from the federal government’s cash payments receded.

The result is likely to encourage the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to leave interest rates unchanged in December, after hiking in each of October and November, economists said.

Retail sales fell 0.2 per cent in September to a seasonally adjusted $19.719 billion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Wednesday.

Over the September quarter, retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent in seasonally adjusted volume terms.

The monthly fall confounded market expectations for a rise of 0.5 per cent, while the quarterly decline was as expected.
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Treasurer Wayne Swan says the one-off payments that form part of the government’s economic stimulus package will be mailed out to all those eligible within two months.

The government’s $42 billion economic stimulus package, which is aimed at staving off a recession, was passed by parliament on Friday.

Mr Swan said the first one-off bonuses, including the $900 single-income family bonus for families with one main earner, would be delivered by Centrelink from March 11.
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