New Zealand offered up two headline numbers early this morning to give a peek into the mind of the average Kiwi consumer. The quarterly Core Retail Sales number came out at 0.9%, which was just slightly under the anticipated 1% reading. However, to counterbalance that the previous quarterly reading was upgraded from -2.5%, to a revised -1.4% which of course in the long run was a positive.
Core Retail Sales q/q
Statistics New Zealand suggested that the June 2012 quarter solid greatest advance in pharmaceuticals and other store based retailing, while the auto sector did quite well. This suggests that although much of the spending would have been relatively benign, one cannot overlook the fact that the motor vehicle retail sector had its largest ever increasing sales volume, up 7.3%. This of course suggests that the average Kiwi must feel at least somewhat confident about the economy, as automobiles are one of the largest purchases that an average person makes.
Overall Retail Sales q/q
Retail sales from a quarterly perspective came out at 1.3%, which of course was much stronger than the anticipated 0.7%. This is a strong number, and should be a bit of a welcome for traders to anticipate the New Zealand dollar to continue rising.
Because of the potential central bank monetary easing around the world and these positive numbers from the consumer side coming out of Wellington, there is a strong chance that the New Zealand economy can continue to move forward much like its cousin’s in Australia. In the face of central bank easing, a lot of commodity currencies will benefit and the New Zealand dollar looks set to be one of those currencies.