Australian retail spending has posted its third consecutive monthly fall, official figures show.
Retail trade fell 0.2 per cent in December to a seasonally adjusted $21.421 billion.
This compares to a downwardly revised $21.472 billion in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
Economists had been forecasting a rise of 0.3 per cent for December.
Over the December quarter, retail sales rose by 0.1 per cent to $63.749 billion in seasonally adjusted volume terms.
