Yet another surprisingly strong economic number today has economists talking up chances of another interest rate hike beyond that widely expected for September 9.
Monday, August 16th 2004, 6:47AM
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.
