No joy for retailers from the latest sales data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday which showed a rise of just 0.2% in February.

That was down from the unchanged 0.3% rise in January according to the ABS.

A better guide from the trend series (which attempts to smooth out the month to month variations of the seasonally adjusted series) shows sales growing at just 0.1% from December through February.

Coming after the weak building approvals for February, it's clear the economy's sluggish tone is continuing into 2012.

But it will confirm to the RBA that consumers are still being cautious, which is what the central bank wants to see as it prepares to think about rate cuts, almost certainly in May.

The ABS said the largest contributor to the rise was other retailing which showed a sharp 1.8% rise in February.

Food retailing (0.3%) and department stores (0.7%) also showed growth.

But turnover fell in clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-1.4%), cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.7%) and household goods retailing (-0.5%).

The ABS said Queensland provided the biggest rise for any state, up 1.5%, followed by Western Australia (1.0%) and South Australia (0.7%). The Northern Territory (0.0%) was unchanged.

Turnover fell in New South Wales (-0.6%), Victoria (-0.4%), the Australian Capital Territory (-0.7%) and Tasmania (-0.1%), the ABS said.

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