Interest rates look set to climb further as retail sales boom

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Monday 16 August 2004

Yet another surprisingly strong economic number today has economists talking up chances of another interest rate hike beyond that widely expected for September 9.

By The Landlord

Retail sales grew at a seasonally and inflation adjusted 0.8 per cent in the June quarter confounding economists' predictions of 0.3 per cent and showing no sign of a widely forecast economic slowdown.

Excluding car sales and repairs and petrol sales, sales were even stronger with a 1.5 per cent rise.

Today's data comes hard on the heels of Tuesday's job numbers which showed unemployment had fallen to a 17 year low of 4.0 per cent, better than the forecast 4.3 per cent.

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