Overview

• Consumer spending, according to NAB’s transaction data, went down 0.2% in November after a strong increase last month.
• The Black Friday sales season seems to have started earlier this year which may have brought forward some of the consumer purchases to October. Retail spending continued to increase, up 0.3% in November after a strong increase of 1.8% last month.
• Non-discretionary spending showed no change in November. Meanwhile, discretionary spending decreased 0.3%, which was led by a decrease of 0.5% in spending on household goods and department stores as well as a fall of 1.6% in other spending.
• Overall, consumer spending increased 1.2% in 3-month average terms and 4.5% over the past 12 months.
• Business credits increased 0.5% m/m in November after a large decrease of 1.5% last month. Overall, business credits increased by 4.5 % over the past 12 months, or 5.3% excluding mining and agriculture.

Monthly Consumer Spending

• Total spending decreased 0.2% m/m. Overall, total consumer spending increased 1.2% in 3-month average terms and 4.5% over the past 12 months.
• Retail spending went up 0.3% after a strong increase of 1.8% last month, with an increase of 0.4% in goods retail and broadly unchanged spending on cafes & restaurants. For detail on retail spending.

• Spending on vehicles & fuel and essential services was largely the same as last month. while other spending went down 1.6%.

• Total spending on goods increased 0.3% and spending on services declined 0.8%. Discretionary spending decreased 0.3% while non-discretionary spending remained unchanged.

For further details please see NAB Monthly Data Insights (November 2024)