Japan Retail Sales Rise 2% YoY; Housing Starts Decline; Australian Building Approvals Surge 11.9%; Export Prices Drop 4.5%

Recent economic data from Japan, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and France indicate mixed trends in retail sales, housing, and price indices. In Japan, retail sales grew 2.0% year-over-year in July, slightly above the 1.8% forecast but down from 2.2% previously. Large-scale retail sales rose 1.0% year-over-year, a decline from the previous 2.0%. Japanese housing starts fell 15.6% year-over-year in June, an improvement from a 34.4% drop previously but slightly better than the 16.4% forecast, with annualized housing starts at 647,000 units. Consumer confidence in Japan declined to 33.7, below the forecast of 35 and the prior 34.5. Australia showed a 4.5% quarter-on-quarter decline in export prices for Q2, worse than the 3.0% expected, while import prices dropped 0.8%, also below the 0.4% forecast. Australian building approvals surged 11.9% month-on-month in June, well above the 1.8% forecast and prior 3.2%. However, private sector house approvals fell 2.0%, reversing the previous 0.5% gain. Retail sales in Australia rose 1.2% month-on-month in June, exceeding the 0.4% forecast, with Q2 retail sales ex-inflation up 0.3%. Private sector credit increased 0.6% month-on-month and 6.8% year-on-year, slightly below the previous 6.9% annual rise. German import prices were flat month-on-month in June, better than the estimated 0.2% decline, but down 1.4% year-on-year. Swiss retail sales rose 3.8% year-on-year, recovering from no growth previously. In France, the preliminary Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) rose 0.9% year-on-year, matching forecasts, while the Producer Price Index fell 0.2% month-on-month. French Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% month-on-month and 1.0% year-on-year, in line with expectations.