Retailers will be thankful that consumers appear to have got a spring back in their step heading into the final weeks of the Christmas season.
Consumer confidence, as measured by the weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan gauge, rebounded 3.1 per cent in the past seven days, retracing most of the falls seen in the past three weeks.
ANZ co-head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett thought this reflected recent positive economic news, such as last week's solid growth result in the national accounts.
However, how much that renewed confidence translates into spending at the shops will depend on what people earn.
Other figures on Tuesday showed growth in wage increases under recent enterprise bargaining agreements showed a marked difference between private and public sector awards.
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The Department of Employment said wage increases overall grew 0.2 per cent to an annualised 3.4 per cent in the September quarter.
Private sector deals rose to 3.5 per cent from 3.1 per cent in the previous three months, but public agreements dropped to three per cent from 3.8 per cent.
Business confidence perked up slightly in November, but remains below its long-run average, the monthly National Australia Bank survey shows.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster thought this was likely a reflection of the uncertain global economic environment.
In contrast, business conditions remained upbeat.
"Consistently above-average business conditions are an encouraging sign that the apparent non-mining sector recovery continues to gain traction, despite relatively muted levels of business confidence," Mr Oster said.
Whether businesses will gain a boost in the future from a cut in the corporate tax rate when the Turnbull government finalises its tax reform agenda is unclear.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared to talk down the prospect of a tax cut on Monday after providing "very generous tax offsets" for investing in start-up companies as part of the government's innovation package.
He said a corporate tax cut would stimulate growth, but would come at a cost to the budget.
However, Treasurer Scott Morrison insists a company tax cut isn't off the table.
"What the innovation statement does, doesn't rule in or rule out anything more broadly on the tax system," Mr Morrison told ABC radio on Tuesday.
In a brief analysis, ANZ economists said a straight cut to the company tax rate would be more useful in encouraging entrepreneurship.
"But it is difficult to criticise a fiscally constrained government for this suite of policies that are much more likely to increase the size of the economic pie than middle-class welfare or first home owner grants," they said.
