AUSTRALIA

Australian retailers recorded their best month of sales in nearly a year as consumers splashed out on everything from dining out to clothing, taking advantage of the easing of protracted lockdowns and building momentum in the economy for the final quarter. Sales rose 4.9% in October from a month earlier, when they rose 1.3%, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed on Friday. Retail turnover regained “most of the momentum lost prior to the Covid19 delta outbreak,” said Ben James, director of quarterly economic surveys at the agency.