Australia's retails sales had gone up by 0.6% for the fourth consecutive month in all territories, according to the Commonwealth Bank's Business Sales Indicator.

This is a good sign that there had been some spending throughout the economy, notes CommSec chief economist Craig James and validates the Reserve Bank's decision to halt further rate reductions.

"Despite ongoing economic concerns being felt both here and overseas, sales figures are ticking up and have been for some time now. The results align with the Reserve Bank's view that activity in the services sector has generally proved stronger than physical goods sales," says Mr. James in an interview by Smartcompany.com.au.

He notes that consumers had not been discouraged by the high prices, but are determined to put credit in proper perspective.

The monthly Commonwealth Bank BSI has been a good tracking indicator of spending among Aussie consumers because it accounts for 30% of all Australian transactions in terms of credit and debit spending processed through the bank's accredited merchant stores, the website for entrepreneurs Smartcompany.com.au said.

The report said that signs consumers are returning to discretionary spending had been noted on the entertainment and amusement sector posting a 20.0% in January, and clothing stores generated a 13.8% increase.

In other sectors, the decline in spending had eased for service providers, utilities and business services, and utilities, although still relatively weak.

Other sectors that still showed some poor results include the tourism-related industries, including hotels and motels recording a 1.3% drop, vehicle rentals had been flat.

Among the territories, the ACT recorded a 1.6% increase in sales in trend terms in January. It was followed by South Australia with 1.0%; Western Australia, 0.9%; Northern Territory at 0.8%; Tasmania, 0.7%; Queensland, 0.6%; Victoria, 0.5%; and NSW trailing at 0.3%.

The ACT also recorded the strongest annual growth, of 4.8%, while spending in NSW was 6.8% lower than a year ago in trend terms. With reports from smartcompany.com.au