Posted by Retail sales rose 0.5% in April to a seasonally adjusted $389.4 billion, the Commerce Department projected Thursday. March sales were revised up to show 0.9% growth from an initial estimate of 0.4% growth; February sales were improved higher as well.
Compared with April 2010, sales are up 7.6%. Excluding a 0.2% increase in sales of motor vehicles, retail store sales rose 0.6% for April.
Economists had expected a solid increase, primarily based on previous reports from sellers and from auto makers. Ahead of the report, economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been looking for month-to-month sales growth of 0.7%.
Nonetheless the sales report was a “something of a double-edged sword,” Dales mentioned.
The upward revision to both February and March implie that first-quarter gross domestic product could be adjusted higher than the initially estimate of a 1.8% annualized growth rate.
“But in April, it looks as though real spending stalled,” Dales said.
This is a important issue, no matter if consumer spending in the second quarter might match the inflation-adjusted 2.7% growth in the first three months of the year.
Retail store sales account for about 50 percent of total consumer spending and about a 3rd of final product sales in the U.S. financial state.
The April sales survey suggests that user spending starts the second quarter at a softer-than-expected pace but there are two months outstanding and if gasoline prices drop, real spending might pick up.
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