Australia Retail Sales for November: +1.2% m/m (expected +0.4%)

November 2017 retails sales numbers are out now

+1.2 % m/m, a huge beat!

• expected +0.4% m/m, prior +0.5%

huge beat for the data - even more impressive given how soft this data set has been in 2017.

For the y/y, up 2.9%

Australian Bureau of Statistics headlining that Black Friday & iPhone X sales drivers

• "Seasonally adjusted sales in both these industries are influenced by the release of the iPhone X and the increasing popularity of promotions in November, including Black Friday sales."
• also rises for clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (1.6 per cent) and cafes, restaurants and takeaways (0.4 per cent). Department stores fell (-1.1 per cent) whilst food was unchanged in November 2017.

The rises in non-food 9food was flat) are even more encouraging.

AUD has been marked higher on the topside srurprise, as I update topping out circa 0.7870.