the surge in housing construction is helping lift spending as people furnish and fit out their new homes. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Australia's May interest-rate cut and federal budget measures to loosen small business purse strings failed to provide a significant boost to retail spending in the month.
Australian retail spending rose 0.3 per cent in May, official figures show, short of economists' expectations of a 0.5 per cent rise. It was
a small improvement on April's 0.1 per cent slide, which was the first fall since May last year, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia economist Diana Mousina said retail figures have been disappointing the past few months, despite what should have been positive influences. In early May the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point for the second time this year.
One of the measures in the May 12 federal budget was increasing the instant asset write-off to $20,000, from the previous threshold of $1000.
"The small business package in the Federal Budget has had a positive influence on small-business asset spending: eg, electronics," Mousina said. "This impact should be more evident in the June data."
