Media File #25

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Carbon price tag blamed for scaring shoppers

July 12 2011, SMH

This article is blaming the carbon tax because retail spending is down as well as consumer confidence. Although the Australian National Retail Association's CE argued that with uncertain interest rates, a slowly recovering financial crisis and natural disasters all happening before a mention of the carbon tax are the main contribution. But the main issue is that retail business is not making as much money as it should. This relates to what we have been learning in commerce because it makes reference to businesses losing profits due to low consumer confidence which is something we learnt. It shows profits and losses in business are not entirely in the owners control and other factors will contribute. In this case they are arguably the carbon tax, natural disasters and the back end of a recession. With consumer confidence down the economy will start to contract because less money is being spent.