Against expectations, the retail sales recorded a dip during the month of February. This happened because the departmental store sales cooled down. The clothing and the footwear receipts saw lesser consumers coming and buying them.

The only segment which recorded a growth was the café and restaurant segment. As per the data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail sales went down by 1.4 per cent to become to $19.83 billion in February as against $20.12 billion in January.

The good news, however, is that the figures are higher than last year when it recorded $19.17 billion sales.

Many analysts fear that these figures would have an impact on the plans of the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise interest rates. This was decided in the monthly policy meeting that took place on Tuesday.

As per the expectations of the economists, the rise should have been positive, although meager. They expected the sales to go up by 0.3 per cent.

Moreover, some other signs of softness have also been seen in the building approvals. They fell by 3.3 per cent in February as against 34.2 per cent rise in the month of January.