milesgHarvey Norman's opinion..... Maybe he should take his rose...

milesg

Harvey Norman's opinion..... Maybe he should take his rose colored glasses of to hey!!!!

It's like the stimulus package never happened: Harvey Norman

Gerry Harvey: 'The Government may have been better off keeping the stimulus money'

One of Australia's biggest stores says it appears the effects of the Government's cash handouts may have worn off for the retail sector.

In early December, the Federal Government delivered most of the $10.4 billion fiscal stimulus package to eligible people.

Harvey Norman's chairman Gerry Harvey has attributed a rise in sales in December to the package.

But he says it looks like the boost may have been temporary.

"Now that I've looked at my first couple of weeks or three weeks nearly sales in January, they're not good," he said.

"My view is if there'd been no fiscal stimulus I don't think it'd have been much different."

He says the Government may have been better off keeping the stimulus money.

"In retrospect now you say to yourself: 'was that a real good idea, that was 10.4 billion, that's a lot of money'," he said.

"Did it have just a temporary effect for December and then disappear? Gee - let's maybe learn a lesson from that and not do that again, I don't know."