Australia’s Retail Sales Rise by 0.3% in October

• Australia’s Retail Sales Rise by 0.3% in October

Sales in Australia remained largely unchanged in October.

The retail sales rose 0.3 percent in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Sales were 0.1 percent higher than the 0.2 percent recorded in September.

The total sales for the month came in at A$26.986 billion.

Australian consumers have not changed their buying pattern as data also showed sales weighed on economic growth in the third quarter.

In October, sales rose in the following industries: food retailing (0.2 percent), other retailing (0.5 percent), cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (0.2 percent), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (0.2 percent).

However, sales of household goods and department stores were down, 0.1 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Australian dollar extends its losses against the US dollar to trade at 0.7223.