The ACT last month experienced one the strongest annual retail growths in the country, off the back of burgeoning consumer confidence.
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While spending in the capital rose a modest 0.3 per cent in October, since last year it has surged by 8.3 per cent.
![Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Robyn Hendry says jobs stability is fundamental to consumer confidence. Photo: Jay Cronan Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Robyn Hendry says jobs stability is fundamental to consumer confidence. Photo: Jay Cronan](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/8c373a40-fed3-41e1-8397-273e23199d06/r0_0_2000_1330_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Every state and territory across the country recorded a lift in spending in October, according to the latest Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI).
Canberra's peak business body believes the capital is "better placed" this Christmas period in terms of consumer confidence and retail offerings.
"By all accounts, consumer confidence has stayed reasonably high so we're optimistic that will continue on the back of reasonable employment," Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Robyn Hendry said.
She said job stability was "fundamental" to that consumer confidence,
"The job ads are up, we haven't seen a lot of contraction from the public sector ... so that's maintaining high consumer confidence and therefore the retail business confidence is reasonably solid as well, which is a very positive thing after the contraction and the low confidence over the last couple of years.
"People obviously feel like they can hold onto their jobs or they can at least have the potential of finding a new job."
Ms Hendry also believes Canberra's fattened-up retail offering is piggybacking much of that certainty.
"That's been aided by some introduction of large retailers, whether it be Costco or IKEA or any others but complementing that, we've had a lot of small boutique retailers coming into the market, we see evidence of those in Braddon etcetera, and they're adding interest as well," she said.
"We're just generally better placed in terms of our retail offering and the confidence and the combination of those is demonstrated in these figures."
CommSec chief economist Craig James said economy-wide spending remains above the decade average.
"Australian businesses have reasons for optimism ahead of Christmas given a lower Aussie dollar, declining unemployment, positive consumer sentiment and interest rates near generational lows," Mr James said.
At an industry level – and quite predictably, coming into prime gift giving season – miscellaneous stores and mail order and telephone order providers experienced strong growth of 1.1 per cent.
The large retail stores sector also grew by 0.8 per cent.
The BSI is a key measure of economy-wide spending, tracking the value of credit and debit card transactions processed through Commonwealth Bank point-of-sale terminals.