Christmas is shaping up to be sluggish for retailers, weighed down by Australia’s lacklustre economy and poor consumer sentiment, with fund managers and analysts remaining wary of companies exposed to household spending.
Christmas trade would "struggle to be better" than 2013, Morgan Stanley analyst Malcolm Wood said.
"I suspect there were sampling issues that lifted headline retail numbers higher a year ago," he said. "The headline numbers will look weaker but the reality will be similar I’m guessing."
(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Online )