A dip in retail spending does not mean the recovery has stalled.

On the contrary, it confirms the recovery is proceeding according to plan.

Back in August, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its quarterly monetary policy statement.

In it, the central bank forecast the economy would grow by a half per cent over 2009.

According to the latest national accounts, gross domestic product (GDP) had already grown by exactly twice that amount by mid-year.

The brighter outlook built on that better performance to date should be evident in the next edition of the quarterly statement to be published by the RBA on Friday.
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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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