The Australian Bureau of Statistics chalked the decline up to households bringing their Christmas shopping forward to take advantage of Black Friday sales, with retail turnover increasing by 1.7 per cent in November.

ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said seasonal spending patterns over the Black Friday and holiday period were evolving.

“While there was a strong rise in original terms for December, as is expected in the lead up to Christmas, this year’s rise in original terms as smaller than those typically seen in past December months,” he said.

“This has led to the large seasonally adjusted fall.”

The biggest declines were concentrated in Black Friday’s gains, including department stores – which fell 14.3 per cent – and clothing, footwear and personal accessories, down 13.1 per cent.

Food retailing, however, picked up 0.3 per cent and remained virtually unchanged from November.

ANZ and Roy Morgan consumer confidence figures revealed downcast sentiment, although consumers didn’t react strongly to hotter-than-expected inflation figures.

The 0.9-point uptick follows minimal movement in the indicator over the month.

Sitting at 86.8, the confidence measure jumped in early January but has stayed within a narrow band of 1.8 points in the first four weeks of the year.

The index, which draws on survey responses from 1500 interviews each week, charted a rise in sentiment in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, but a decline in Victoria and South Australia.

ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said confidence remains well below the neutral level of 100, but has returned to its highest level since June 2022.

Despite the consumer price index coming in above expectations at 7.8 per cent last week, the inflation expectations sub-index fell to 5.3 per cent, its lowest level since September.

“This is a signal that household inflation expectations remain somewhat anchored, despite accelerating inflation through 2022,” Timbrell said.

The “time to buy a major household item” sub-index recovered 1.4 points after a 4.7-point loss over the previous fortnight.

-AAP