U.S. Retail Sales

US retail trade rose 0.5 percent from a month earlier in May 2019, following an upwardly revised 0.3 percent growth in April and compared to market expectations of 0.6 percent. Sales rose for motor vehicles and a variety of other goods. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales grew 0.5 percent after an upwardly revised 0.4 percent advance in April. Retail Sales MoM in the United States averaged 0.36 percent from 1992 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 6.70 percent in October of 2001 and a record low of -3.90 percent in November of 2008.

Retail Sales MoM in the United States is expected to be 0.40 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Retail Sales MoM in the United States to stand at -0.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the U.S. Retail Sales is projected to trend around 0.40 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.

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Calendar	GMT		Actual	Previous	Consensus	TEForecast
2019-04-01	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	-0.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%
2019-04-18	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	1.6%	-0.2%	0.9%	0.6%
2019-05-15	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	-0.2%	1.7%	0.2%	0.3%
2019-06-14	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	0.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.6%
2019-07-16	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM		0.5%		0.4%
2019-08-15	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM
2019-09-13	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM

US Retail Sales Rise in May

US retail trade rose 0.5 percent from a month earlier in May 2019, following an upwardly revised 0.3 percent growth in April and compared to market expectations of 0.6 percent.

10 of 13 major retail categories showed month-over-month increases.

Sales at motor vehicle & parts dealers advanced 0.7 percent, reversing a 0.5 percent decrease in the previous month; and those at building material stores edged 0.1 percent higher, after a 0.6 percent drop in April. In addition, receipts at service stations rose 0.3 percent (vs 2.1 percent in April) and online and mail-order purchases jumped 1.4 percent (vs 0.5 percent in April). Sales also increased at: furniture & home furniture stores (0.1 percent vs 0.6 percent); electronics & appliance stores (1.1 percent vs -1.3 percent); health & personal care stores (0.6 percent vs 0.2 percent); hobby, musical instrument and book stores (1.1 percent vs 1.0 percent); general merchandise stores (0.7 percent vs 0.8 percent); and restaurants and bars (0.7 percent vs 0.3 percent).

On the other hand, receipts at clothing stores were unchanged (vs -0.2 percent in April) while sales at miscellaneous store retailers dropped 1.3 percent (vs 1.7 percent in April) and those at food & beverage stores declined 0.1 percent (vs 0.2 percent in April).

Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales grew 0.5 percent in May after a 0.4 percent advance in the previous month. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of GDP.

Year-on-year, retail trade growth slowed to 3.2 percent from a revised 3.7 percent in the previous month.

US Census Bureau | Joana Ferreira | joana.ferreira@tradingeconomics.com
6/14/2019 12:54:06 PM

News

US Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall
US retail trade dropped 0.2 percent from a month earlier in April 2019, following an upwardly revised 1.7 percent growth in March, which was the biggest increase in sales for one-and-a-half year. April's reading came in below market expectations of a 0.2 percent advance.
Published on 2019-05-15

US Retail Sales Post Biggest Gain in 1-1/2 Years
US retail trade jumped 1.6 percent from a month earlier in March 2019, following a 0.2 percent drop in February and easily beating market expectations of a 0.9 percent advance. That was the biggest increase in retail trade since September 2017 boosted by sales of motor vehicles and a range of other goods.
Published on 2019-04-18

US Retail Sales Unexpectedly Drop in February
US retail trade fell by 0.2 percent from a month earlier in February 2019, following an upwardly revised 0.7 percent growth in January and missing market expectations of a 0.3 percent gain.
Published on 2019-04-01

US Retail Sales Rebound in January
US retail trade rose by 0.2 percent from a month earlier in January 2019, following an upwardly revised 1.6 percent decline in December and beating market expectations of a flat reading. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales rebounded 1.1 percent in January after a downwardly revised 2.3 percent decrease in December.
Published on 2019-03-11

United States Consumer	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
Consumer Confidence	97.90	100.00	111.40	51.70	Index Points	[+]
Retail Sales MoM	0.50	0.30	6.70	-3.90	percent	[+]
Retail Sales YoY	3.20	3.70	11.20	-11.50	percent	[+]
Retail Sales Ex Autos	0.50	0.50	2.60	-4.00	percent	[+]
Consumer Spending	13075.11	13032.30	13075.11	1403.69	USD Billion	[+]
Disposable Personal Income	15958.57	15939.42	15958.57	351.54	USD Billion	[+]
Personal Spending	0.30	1.10	2.80	-2.10	percent	[+]
Personal Income	0.50	0.10	4.60	-4.70	percent	[+]
Personal Savings	6.20	6.50	17.30	2.20	percent	[+]
Consumer Credit	17.50	11.03	116.79	-111.95	USD Billion	[+]
Private Sector Credit	9764.44	9724.94	9764.44	39.04	USD Billion	[+]
Bank Lending Rate	5.50	5.50	20.50	2.00	percent	[+]
Economic Optimism Index	53.20	58.60	62.90	35.80		[+]
Redbook Index	5.40	5.00	9.30	-5.80	percent	[+]
Chain Store Sales	3736.00	3690.00	15875.00	2890.00	USD Million	[+]
Gasoline Prices	0.75	0.74	1.07	0.24	USD/Liter	[+]
Households Debt To GDP	76.30	76.60	98.60	23.80	percent of GDP	[+]
Consumer Confidence Current Conditions	113.20	112.50	121.10	57.50		[+]
Consumer Confidence Economic Expectations	80.20	83.90	108.60	44.20		[+]
Consumer Confidence Price Trends	2.70	2.60	10.40	0.40		[+]

U.S. Retail Sales

Retail sales report in the US provides aggregated measure of sales of retail goods and services over a period of a month. There are thirteen major types of retailers: Motor vehicle & parts dealers (around 20 percent of total sales), Food & beverage stores (13%), General merchandise stores (12.5%), Food services & drinking places (11%), Gasoline stations (10%), Nonstore retailers (9.2%), Building material & garden dealers (6%), Health & personal care stores (6%), Clothing & clothing accessories stores (5%), Miscellaneous store retailers (2.3%), Furniture stores (2%), Electronics & appliance stores (2%) and Sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores (1.7%). This page provides - U.S. December Retail Sales Increased More Than Forecast - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. U.S. Retail Sales - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on June of 2019.