Australian retail sales rose for a third straight month in March, driven primarily by food inflation, as household spending begins to cool under the weight of the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest-rate increases. Sales advanced 0.4% from a month earlier, compared with a forecast 0.2% gain, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Wednesday. Every category outside of food and eating out recorded a decline. “Spending on non-food retailing has slowed in response to interest rate rises and increased cost of living pressures,” Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics, said in a statement. “Food retailing has now ... (full story)