Australian retailers boasted their best quarter of sales in two years, a sign that the economy had likely averted its first recession in 25 years, though shoppers turned frugal into the Christmas holiday season. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) out on Monday showed real retail sales for the quarter-ended December matched expectations to rise 0.9 percent, from a flat July-September.
Retail contributes about 17 percent to Australia's A$1.6 trillion annual economic output, and is the second-biggest employer after healthcare. Data on Australia's gross domestic product for the December quarter is due March 1 and economists generally expect the pace of growth to have rebounded after a shock contraction in the July-September period.
Cementing that view, figures out last week showed Australia posted a record trade surplus in December while measures of business confidence and conditions had bounced too.
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