Indonesia: Retail sales lose steam in November
In November, retail sales increased 1.3% year-on-year, down from October’s 3.6% increase and markedly below the Central Bank’s initial estimate of 3.4%. November’s slowdown was driven by weaker momentum across most sub-sectors. The Bank expects retail sales to have contracted 0.2% in December, which, if confirmed, would leave the average reading for Q4 little changed from Q3, hinting at broadly stable private consumption.
Going forward, the outlook for private consumption is fairly positive, thanks to the ongoing impact of past monetary easing and a solid labor market.