Spending rebounds
Spending has soared to its strongest level in nine months, rising 0.6 per cent, with the Federal election result resolved and the uncertainty of Brexit receding, according to the Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI).
The BSI, which tracks the value of credit and debit card transactions processed through Commonwealth Bank merchant facilities, show that economy wide spending lifted by an average of 0.5 per cent a month in trend terms.
While spending growth slowed from December 2015, culminating in a modest 0.1 per cent increase in sales in March, annual growth lifted from 4.4 to 4.6 per cent in August.
Spending had slowed earlier in the year ahead of the UK vote on the European Union and the Federal election.
In annual terms, all states and territories had sales above a year ago, suggesting consumers are responding to low unemployment and interest rates along with improving business and consumer confidence.
The biggest uptick in spending was in Amusement & Entertainment. It had the strongest gain in 16 months with spending up 1.5 per cent in trend terms in August.
Spending was up 0.8 per cent at Hotels & Motels, and Wholesale Distributors and Manufacturers.
Only three of the 19 industry sectors contracted: airlines, transportation and automobiles & vehicles.
by Leon Gettler, September 21st 2016
