Australia Retail Sales Unexpectedly Drop, Boosting Rate Cut Bets

Australian retail sales unexpectedly fell for the first time in 10 months, sending the nation’s currency, stocks and bond yields lower as bets increased on the central bank’s fourth interest-rate cut since November.

Sales dropped 0.2 percent to A$21.2 billion ($20.7 billion) from March, when they gained a revised 1.1 percent to a record, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today. The result compares with the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 20 economists for a 0.2 percent gain.