Gerry Harvey, the chairman of retailer Harvey Norman, says consumers are still spending on big-screen televisions, computers, ovens, new beds and sofas and there is no sign of any slowing even though cost-of-living pressures are rising.

Mr Harvey said the negativity of constant headlines when bank economists make predictions of heavy house price falls as the Reserve Bank of Australia liftsinterest rates to stomp on inflation, is at odds with what his stores are doing in daily sales in late August.