Interest rates look set to climb further as retail sales boom

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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