Fashion pulse: Australia - February 2026

Consumer prices (February 2026)

Clothing and footwear prices in Australia rose 5.0 percent year-on-year in February, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), running 1.3 percentage points above the +3.7 percent headline inflation reading. Australia joins Sweden and China as one of only three markets in the Fashion pulse series where clothing inflation exceeds headline; most other OECD economies show the opposite pattern. Within the fashion basket, accessories and clothing services led at +12.7 percent, driven by higher prices for gold jewellery per ABS commentary. Infants and children’s garments rose 5.9 percent, women’s garments 3.1 percent and men’s garments 1.8 percent. Men’s shoes were the only fashion sub-category in deflation, down 1.1 percent year-on-year. Month-on-month, clothing and footwear rose 2.6 percent as summer sales ended and autumn collections reached stores.

Household spending (February 2026)

Household spending on clothing and footwear was close to flat in February, rising 0.1 percent month-on-month after a 0.2 percent rise in January, according to the ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator. The flat reading follows a −2.6 percent December decline — payback from November 2025’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending surge rather than a post-Christmas dynamic (post-Christmas discounting in Australia actually drives the January reading via Boxing Day sales). Across Australia’s states for clothing and footwear specifically, Northern Territory led the month at +2.0 percent, with Western Australia second at +1.5 percent, while New South Wales was the weakest at −0.9 percent. Australia’s Retail Trade publication, which previously broke out monthly retail sales by industry including clothing retailing, footwear retailing, and department stores, ceased publication with the June 2025 release. The household spending indicator is the closest available monthly fashion spending proxy.

Consumer confidence

Australian consumer sentiment deteriorated sharply through March. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index fell from 73.4 in the first week of March to 58.8 in the final week — a 14.6-point collapse attributed to Middle East conflict uncertainty and petrol-price rises. The 2026 year-to-date weekly average stood at 73.6 as of mid-April (down from ~75.3 as of end-March before April readings pulled the figure lower), placing Australian consumer sentiment well below the weekly-era average of 105.5 (October 2008 to present; the 1973-onwards overall average is 106.8). Weekly readings held below 70 for the second half of March — a level historically associated with recessionary retail outcomes. Monetary policy and currency The Reserve Bank of Australia has hiked the cash rate by 50 basis points across two consecutive meetings, taking the rate from 3.60 percent in January to 4.10 percent effective 18 March 2026 — Australia’s first rate hike since November 2023 (when the RBA finished the 2022–23 tightening phase at a peak of 4.35 percent). The Australian dollar strengthened 1.7 percent against the euro in March, with the ECB reference rate averaging 1.6470 AUD per EUR versus 1.6763 in February, while weakening 0.5 percent against the US dollar.

Note: this article combines the most recent official data available at the time of writing. Reporting lags differ by indicator and country, so not all figures refer to the same month. Each data point is labelled with its reference period.