Nick Goodall

I suppose there was generally some decent data out last week.

The one thing I spoke about last week was really interested to see some of the retail spend data that comes out for December to see how retail spending was through that month, in particular in Boxing Day.

I did see, I think it was the day after we recorded last week, some data from Worldline came out that showed Boxing Day sales themselves had slumped

12.4 percent but the overall monthly figures were only down 0.2 percent in terms of total amount spent over the month through the worldline data through their online tracking i suppose it is so i just thought that was an interesting one where yeah spending wasn't you know great in december

So maybe that growth in the economy isn't as strong.

But the other more regular data releases that we track were probably a little bit more optimistic or positive in terms of where the economy is at.

the indices out that cover sort of 45% of the CPI, where that's at, and again, the influence that might have on interest rates later on and what it might mean for the economy.

So yeah, over to you, mate, in terms of your summary of the economy right now.

Yeah, no, it's going to be intriguing, I think.

Yeah, just the devil will be in that detail, right, as to what is contributing to that growth and inflation.

Then we can get a feel for maybe how the Reserve Bank might read it.

You know, given the new governor, Anna Bremen, you know, she's been pretty proactive with her conversation recently.

um and communication and so you know when this release comes out do we see anything from her giving her take on it um you know or or are they going to go back to what was previously happening which is they kind of wait until either big speeches are coming up or they actually put out their uh you know ocr decision or their statements before they actually say anything eventually see if we said give anything in the interim from hers to her read on it um but like you say

You know, while it may not mean necessarily that we're going to start to see OCR increases sooner rather than later, it certainly will put paid to any more drops, which I know no one was really forecasting.

But there was always a lingering thing in the background that, you know, they could still drop the OCR again.

Does it get to 2% if they truly want to stimulate things and feel like it hasn't flowed through through that Christmas period, which, as I said, prior to Christmas and now again, let's wait and see how that Christmas period goes because the Reserve Bank will be very interested to see how all of their rhetoric, their drops in the OCR, their assurances that its rates will stay low, trying to stimulate that spending.

If it doesn't really occur, then do they have to double down and do one more cut?

But maybe this data just will make them go, hmm,

Well, we'd like to because the economy hasn't recovered to the level that hoped.

Then, you know, they just have to be too mindful of that inflation data to push up the OCR instead of, you know, knocking it down or whatever.