Australian retail sales rose 5.8% in January 2022. The detailed breakdown shows smaller retailers did well and all household goods categories lapped strong growth. Liquor, takeaway food and department stores all reported a sales decline.  As COVID-19 cases have fallen, spending has improved in February 2022. We expect accelerating price inflation to further support sales growth. We forecast retail sales growth of 3% in 2022, on top of 5% in 2021 and 7% in 2020.