Australians celebrated the brief respite between lockdowns and Omicron by shopping, according to new figures from the the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

November retail sales rose by 7.3 per cent to $33.41 billion, after a 4.9 increase in October. Bloomberg’s estimate of 3.6 per cent for November was less than half the actual figure, as shoppers exited lockdown in droves.

November marked the biggest monthly leap since May 2020, which saw a whopping 16.6 per cent rise, following the April 2020 drop of 17.4 per cent during the first COVID lockdown.

Department store shopping jumped 26 per cent in November, with household good spending up 11.6 per cent, and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing up 38.2 per cent.

Of course, since the Omicron variant has spread, we can expect future results to reflect another swift downturn in consumer spending.