SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian retail sales bounced strongly in January after a surprise plunge in December that owed much to changing spending habits and online sale events, suggesting consumption as a whole was holding up.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday showed retail sales rose 1.9% in January from December, when they dived 4.0%. Sales of A$35.1 billion ($23.67 billion)were 7.5% higher than a year earlier.
That topped median forecasts of a rise of 1.5%, while analyst uncertainty about the outcome was illustrated by the fact estimates ranged from -3.7% to +5.0%.
($1 = 1.4830 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
