AUSTRALIAN retail sales bounced strongly in January after a surprise plunge in December that owed much to changing spending habits and online sale events, suggesting consumption as a whole was holding up.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday showed retail sales rose 1.9 per cent in January from December. Sales of A$35.1 billion (S$32 billion) were 7.5 per cent higher than a year earlier. That topped median forecasts of a rise of 1.5 per cent, while analyst uncertainty about the outcome was illustrated by the fact estimates ranged from -3.7 per cent to +5.0 per cent. REUTERS