Joe Hockey has repeatedly said he wants people to spend up this Christmas to fuel activity in the economy.

The treasurer will be hoping that the early stages of the festive shopping season were upbeat when October retail spending figures are released on Thursday.

However, economists doubt it will match the solid 1.2 per cent rise posted in September that was fuelled by the release of Apple’s iPhone 6 mobile.

They expect it will be more like a 0.2 per cent increase.

Economists also expect the monthly international trade deficit in October to show a modest improvement on the previous month.

In particular, all eyes will be on exports after they made a solid contribution to economic growth in an otherwise disappointing national accounts for the September quarter that were released on Wednesday.

AAP