The Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the Australian retail sales data kicked-off the year on a firmer note, although came in below estimates.
The retail trade rose 0.3% in Jan, following no growth (0.0%) reported in Dec and a rise of 0.4% in Nov. Markets had predicted a growth of 0.4% in Jan.
Meanwhile, Australian turnover rose 4.0% in January 2016 compared with January 2015.
The retail turnover of the following sectors grew at the beginning of 2016: Food retailing (0.3%), Household goods retailing (0.5%), Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (0.3%), Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (0.2%) and Other retailing (0.2%). Department stores (0.0%) was relatively unchanged in trend terms in January 2016.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)