Household spending was unchanged in August in seasonally adjusted terms, after rising in both July (up 1.1 per cent) and June (up 0.9 per cent).
This is according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which show that many of the key spending categories saw falls month-on-month.
ABS head of business statistics Tom Lay said recreation and culture spending saw the largest fall – down 1.4 per cent – after months of higher spending associated with major sporting events.
“Clothing and footwear, recreational goods, food, health, and furniture also fell,” Lay said.
“These falls were offset by higher transport spending – up 2.3 per cent - leaving overall household spending unchanged from July.”
Lay added that both fuel spending and new vehicle sales contributed to this rise, especially electric vehicles sales as households respond to rising fuel prices.
Fuel spending rose 8.1 per cent in August, following the full restoration of fuel excise duty from August 3 – a Federal Government’s Fuel Tax Relief measures introduced on April 1.
Excluding fuel spending, total household spending would have fallen by 0.3 per cent.
Experimental data produced by the ABS suggests that the volume of fuel spending fell by 0.5 per cent per cent in August. This follows a 4.6 per cent per cent decrease in July.
While clothing and footwear saw a month-on-month slip in seasonally adjusted terms, the same experimental data shows that, in original terms, clothing and footwear spending grew month-on-month, hitting $2.85 billion in August. This is also up by over $100 million compared to August 2025.
Conversely, department stores struggled over the last few months, falling from a recent peak of $1.66 billion in June, to $1.49 billion in August.