Commonwealth Bank chief economist reveals the catalyst of increased spending in August

An early Father’s Day and energy rebates are suspected to be the push for a two per cent lift in household spending for August. The latest household spending indicator from CommBank shows Australians increased spending on many categories including hospitality, household goods and education. Commonwealth Bank Chief Economist Stephen Halmarick told Sky News Australia the dataset shows these trends are “very large”. “Father’s Day this year was the earliest it could possibly be … a lot of the Father’s Day spending would have happened in August and so August looks like it was a bit stronger,” Mr Halmarick said. “This kind of plays to the narrative that when there are big events on, people are willing to spend a little money … we saw that with Taylor Swift and the Australian Open. “When there’s a big event on or something that might bring you some joy, people are spending a little bit more money. “The other area where spending increased a lot in August was education ... university fees and school fees all due in August and in fact in the year to August, education is now the fastest growing category of spending, up over by 11 per cent.”