Black Friday sales blitz muddying interest rate signals for RBA

Black Friday sales blitz muddying interest rate signals for RBA

Economists warn that the bank board’s judgment is being clouded by shifting consumer habits as shoppers bring forward their traditional Christmas spending.

Black Friday Boom Clouds RBA Rate Outlook As Online Sales Surge – channelnews

Australia’s expanding Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales season is making it harder for the Reserve Bank to read the real state of the economy, with a late-2025 online shopping surge distorting both spending and inflation data. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show consumer spending in November jumped 6.3% from a year earlier, well above the 5.5% economists expected and the strongest two-month run in two years. Much of the li