On the surface, the 0.4% decline in retail sales volumes in November looks worrying, but that fall partly reflects households delaying purchases ahead of the December GST holiday. Encouragingly, November’s drop appears to have more than reversed in December, with the flash estimate implying that sales volumes surged by more than 1%. That would leave retail sales volumes on track to grow by 5% in the fourth quarter, consistent with consumption growth remaining solid at around 3%.
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