Five sleeps to 30 June and the Australian Bureau of Statistics dropped the May CPI print yesterday. Headline inflation eased to 4.0 per cent, the lowest in four months, but the RBA’s preferred core measure (trimmed mean) rose from 3.4 per cent to 3.6 per cent, signalling that the prices we actually pay every week are still climbing faster than wages. Layer the Australian Retail Council’s $10.7 billion EOFY forecast on top, with spending growth at just 1.9 per cent (less than half the inflation rate), and the message for the household budget is sharp. Real EOFY spending is going backwards, and the only way to keep pace is to make the markdown count. Today’s brief reads the May CPI through a shopper’s lens and surfaces five fresh Australian sales we have not featured before.
The May CPI Print: Headline Fell, But The Core Is Still Climbing
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the May 2026 Monthly CPI indicator on 24 June. The headline rate eased to 4.0 per cent year-on-year, down from 4.2 per cent in April and below market expectations of 4.4 per cent, with cheaper petrol the biggest contributor. The number that matters more to the Reserve Bank, the trimmed mean (which strips out volatile items like fuel and fresh fruit), moved the other way and rose to 3.6 per cent, up from 3.4 per cent the previous month. Patrick Commins at The Guardian Australia reported the split print on the day it landed, citing economist Sally Auld at Westpac who said the pressure on the RBA is “not as urgent” but warned the central bank may still adopt “a less aggressive stance” rather than pivot. AMP chief economist Shane Oliver flagged that rising fertiliser costs are still pushing food prices up, a concern the RBA continues to watch.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers framed the result as a positive surprise, telling reporters the figures are “significantly better than what the market anticipated, much better than forecasts”. For Australian households the read is more cautious. Headline inflation tracking around 4 per cent and core inflation rising to 3.6 per cent means that the average grocery bill, electricity account, insurance premium and rent is still climbing faster than the Fair Work minimum wage adjustment due on 1 July. Westpac’s economics team described the picture as “diverging pressures and a delicate descent”. The practical translation for shoppers: a dollar spent at full price in July buys 3.6 per cent less in services and 4 per cent less in goods than it did in May 2025, and the markdown window between now and 30 June is the last chance this calendar year to claw any of that purchasing power back before EOFY pricing resets to RRP.
$10.7 Billion EOFY, 1.9 Per Cent Growth: Real Spending Is Going Backwards
The Australian Retail Council and Roy Morgan released the 2026 EOFY spending forecast on 19 June. Total spending across the period is tipped at $10.7 billion, with 6.1 million Australians (26 per cent of the population) expected to shop the sales. The headline that matters: spending growth is forecast at just 1.9 per cent year-on-year, well below the 4.0 per cent CPI print confirmed five days later. In real terms, EOFY 2026 spending will fall by roughly 2 percentage points, the first negative real EOFY result since the 2020 pandemic year. Retail Asia reported the figures, citing Fleur Brown of the Australian Retail Council who said consumers “are still attracted to discounts, but remain cautious” and are “carefully managing every dollar”.
The category mix tells the same story. Clothing, footwear and accessories will absorb 34 per cent of EOFY spend, household appliances and white goods 15 per cent, electronics and technology 12 per cent. Online accounts for 44 per cent of total EOFY spending, unchanged from 2025. The age-bracket data is the most striking single data point. Households aged 35 to 49 (peak mortgage and school-fee years) plan to spend just $1,464 across EOFY, less than both younger shoppers ($1,946) and older shoppers ($1,993). The middle bracket has been most exposed to cash-rate-driven mortgage repricing through 2024 and 2025, and the EOFY budget shrink is direct evidence of that. The deals strategy this week, accordingly, has to be ruthlessly selective: spend on the items that compound (a sofa that outlives ten years of rent, a mattress that recovers the next decade of sleep, a washing machine that bills $0 for repairs) and skip the discretionary impulse buys that read like value at 60 per cent off but were not on the list yesterday.
Beauty, Fashion, Footwear: Where The Markdowns Are Deepest This Week
For shoppers who do need to refresh wardrobes, gifts or skincare before 30 June, the beauty and fashion aisles are running the deepest single-product discounts of the EOFY cycle. En Route’s 2026 EOFY guide, updated 19 June, recorded MURAD at up to 50 per cent off through the full month, Naked Sundays at up to 50 per cent sitewide (limited window), Skinstitut at 30 per cent off sitewide (through 23 June, ended), Pure Fiji, Image Skincare, Youngblood Cosmetics and AKT all running 20 to 30 per cent off sitewide from 24 to 30 June. The deepest fashion line is Summi Summi at up to 80 per cent off the La Vie and La Palma collections (live now through 30 June), followed by Helen Kaminski at up to 50 per cent off (live now), Hush Puppies at up to 50 per cent off (until 28 June), Reebok at up to 40 per cent off footwear and apparel, OROTON at up to 40 per cent off bags and jewellery (through 30 June), and Superdry at up to 50 per cent off plus $99 jackets (running until 1 July).
The strategy across these promotions is consistent. Discounts that sit at 20 to 30 per cent sitewide are typical of the EOFY skincare cycle and will likely repeat at Black Friday in November. Discounts at 40 to 50 per cent off are unusual, season-end clearance pricing that runs every June and clears stock before the new financial year begins. Discounts above 60 per cent (Summi Summi at 80 per cent, the deeper end of the Eckersleys art clearance, the SurfStitch kids range featured below) signal end-of-line stock that will not be replenished. That is the buying lane that compounds: a $200 sweater at 50 per cent off saves $100 you can put toward the next bill, but the same sweater at 80 per cent off saves $160 and is the genuine bargain that does not return.
Five Fresh Australian Stores, Never Featured Here Before
Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.
Discount
SurfStitchChildren's WearUp to 85 per cent off SurfStitch’s kids and youth clearance: rashies, boardies, tees, hoodies, sandals and accessories from the Australian-owned surf retailer based on the Gold Coast, with free shipping over $75 and 30-day returns across the full sale range.85%OFF2
Hello MollyFashionUp to 80 per cent off Hello Molly’s full sale section: dresses, going-out tops, denim, two-pieces and accessories from the Sydney-based Australian-owned women’s brand, with free standard shipping over $50 Australia-wide and 30-day returns on sale items.80%OFF3
EckersleysArt SuppliesUp to 74 per cent off Eckersleys Art and Craft: paints, brushes, canvases, sketchbooks, watercolours and craft kits from the family-owned Australian art retailer founded in Melbourne in 1953, with click-and-collect from 13 stores nationally and Australia-wide shipping.74%OFF4
RockwearActive WearUp to 71 per cent off Rockwear’s activewear clearance: leggings, sports bras, tanks, hoodies and gym sets from the Queensland-based Australian-owned women’s training brand, with free shipping over $80 and free returns from any Rockwear retail store.71%OFF5
Baku SwimwearBeachwearUp to 70 per cent off Baku Swimwear’s mid-year clearance: one-pieces, bikinis, rash tops, cover-ups and resortwear from the Melbourne-based Australian-owned swim label, with Australia-wide shipping and 30-day returns across the sale collection.70%OFF% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.
Our Take
The May CPI print is a useful frame for the last five days of EOFY. With core inflation at 3.6 per cent and EOFY spending growth at 1.9 per cent, the average Australian household is making roughly 1.7 percentage points less progress on real consumption every month than the headline economy suggests. The deals that close that gap are the ones with two characteristics: a genuine percentage discount above 50 per cent (so the saving outpaces the inflation drag) and a product on the household priority list that would have been bought eventually at full price. Everything else is a discretionary impulse that adds to the wardrobe but not to the budget.
The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built exactly for this read. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “queen mattress under 1000” or “winter jacket under 100”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. The 30 June clock is now five sleeps away. Browse Today’s Sales before the markdown window closes.