New figures showing the volume of goods bought by consumers reveal Australians are still buying record levels of stuff, despite higher interest rates.
to 1.85 per cent, is expecting a slowdown in overall economic activity due to its tightening of monetary policy.at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis while in Sydney they have dropped at their quickest rate since the mid-1980s.
Consumers are also filling their wardrobes with new clothes and shoes, the volume of those purchases up by 3.9 per cent in the quarter to be almost 28 per cent up on their pre-pandemic level.ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said the large lift in retail volumes, despite high inflation and recession-level confidence among consumers, pointed to the residual strength among the nation’s consumers.
There are some signs of a slowdown in those areas that did best through COVID. Sales of food dropped by 0.8 per cent in the quarter while those of household goods slipped by 1.8 per cent. “The volume of household goods retailing has been elevated since the onset of the pandemic, reflecting consumers spending more on the home. But recently, higher household goods prices has weighed on the volume of spending. The turning in the housing market has also likely had an impact,” he said.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would not interfere in the RBA’s decisions, noting the government’s focus was on cost-of-living measures it planned to deliver in the October budget.
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