Recap of the Australian Q2 retail sales beat - bodes well for GDP in the quarter

Retail sales from Australia for June and the quarter came in better than estimates:

• Australia Retail Sales for June: +0.4% m/m (expected +0.3%)

A few responses coming in now:

Westpac

• detail showed reasonably solid gains … for the June month
• Annual growth in real retail sales remains subdued at 2.5%yr, holding around the same pace over the last four quarters
• Overall, the upside surprise for Q2 retail volumes contains positives for the wider picture on consumer spending atlhough the weakness in prices underscores many of the other pressures

via Reuters

• "The Q2 rise in real retail sales is encouraging especially when the evidence suggests that non-retail spending, excluding vehicles, has also been fairly strong," said Paul Dales, chief economist at Capital Economics.
• "Although the data beat our expectations, it does come off the back of a very weak March quarter," said Sarah Hunter, head of Macroeconomics Australia at BIS Oxford Economics."Broadly speaking, growth remains very patchy and given the ongoing weakness in wage and other income growth we expect this to continue through the rest of this year."