Australia’s 10-year government bond yield rose to around 4.59% as investors parsed fresh domestic data. Data revealed Australian retail sales increased by 0.8% from a month earlier in November, up from a 0.5% gain in October but missing market expectations of a 1% growth. Additionally, the country posted its largest trade surplus in ten months in November, as exports rose faster than imports. Meanwhile, earlier data showed that headline inflation ticked up to 2.3% in November from 2.1%, but core inflation slowed to 3.2% from 3.5%. These figures came after the Reserve Bank of Australia recently expressed growing confidence that inflation would soon return sustainably to its 2-3% target band, opening a path to rate cuts in the coming months. Markets currently imply around a 75% chance of a 25bps reduction at the RBA’s February meeting, with rates seen to drop to around 3.60% by the end of the year.