U.S. Retail Sales 1992-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast | News

US retail trade rose by 0.5 percent month-over-month in July 2018, following a downwardly revised 0.2 percent advance in June. The sales beat market expectations of a 0.1 percent gain boosted by purchases of motor vehicles and clothing. Retail Sales MoM in the United States averaged 0.36 percent from 1992 until 2018, 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.

1Y 5Y 10Y MAX

width

height

Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices.

Learn More Questions? Contact us Already a Member? Login

The Trading Economics Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct access to our data. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds.

API Features Documentation Interested? Click here to contact us

US Retail Sales Rise More than Expected in July

US retail trade rose by 0.5 percent month-over-month in July 2018, following a downwardly revised 0.2 percent advance in June. The sales beat market expectations of a 0.1 percent gain boosted by purchases of motor vehicles and clothing.

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

Sales at motor vehicle & parts dealers advanced 0.2 percent in July (vs 0.1 percent in June) and those at clothing & clothing accessories stores rebounded 1.3 percent (vs -1.6 percent in June). Also, sales at gasoline stations moved up 0.8 percent (vs 0.3 percent in June), and online and mail-order retail trade jumped 0.8 percent (vs 0.7 percent in June) likely boosted by Amazon's "Prime Day" promotion. Sales also rose at: restaurants and bars (1.3 percent vs 1.6 percent); general merchandise stores (0.7 percent vs -0.7 percent); food & beverage stores (0.6 percent vs flat reading); and electronics & appliance stores (0.1 percent vs 0.4 percent).

Meanwhile, receipts at hobby, musical instrument and book stores fell 1.7 percent (vs -2.1 percent in June) and those at furniture & home furniture stores dropped 0.5 percent (vs 0.3 percent in June). Declines were also seen at miscellaneous store retailers (-0.3 percent vs -1.5 percent), and health & personal care stores (-0.4 percent vs 1.1 percent). Spending at building material stores were unchanged last month (vs 0.1 percent in June).

Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales advanced 0.5 percent in July after a downwardly revised 0.1 percent dip in June.

Year-on-year, retail trade grew 6.4 percent in July, compared with a 6.1 percent rise in June.

US Census Bureau | Joana Ferreira | joana.ferreira@tradingeconomics.com
8/15/2018 12:52:48 PM

Recent Releases

US Retail Sales Rise Solidly in June
US retail trade rose by 0.5 percent month-over-month in June 2018, following an upwardly revised 1.3 percent advance in May and matching market expectations. June's gains were mainly boosted by increases in purchases of motor vehicles.
Published on 2018-07-16

US Retail Sales Post Biggest Gain in 6 Months
US retail trade rose by 0.8 percent month-over-month in May 2018, following an upwardly revised 0.4 percent advance in April and easily beating market expectations of a 0.4 percent gain. It was the steepest increase in retail trade since November.
Published on 2018-06-14

US Retail Sales Rise 0.3% in April as Expected
US retail trade rose by 0.3 percent month-over-month in April 2018, following an upwardly revised 0.8 percent surge in March and matching market expectations.
Published on 2018-05-15

US Retail Trade Rebound Stronger than Expected
US retail trade rose by 0.6 percent month-over-month in March 2018, recovering from a 0.1 percent drop in February and beating market expectations of a 0.4 percent gain. It was the first month of increase since November, mainly boosted by purchases of motor vehicles. Considering the first quarter of the year, retail sales went up 0.2 percent.
Published on 2018-04-16

Calendar	GMT		Actual	Previous	Consensus	TEForecast
2018-06-14	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	0.8%	0.4%	0.4%	0.3%
2018-07-16	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	0.5%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%
2018-08-15	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2018-09-14	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM		0.5%		0.35%
2018-10-15	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM				0.41%
2018-11-15	01:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM				0.34%

United States Consumer	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
Consumer Confidence	95.30	97.90	111.40	51.70	Index Points	[+]
Retail Sales MoM	0.50	0.20	6.70	-3.90	percent	[+]
Retail Sales YoY	6.40	6.60	11.20	-11.50	percent	[+]
Retail Sales Ex Autos	0.60	0.20	2.60	-4.00	percent	[+]
Consumer Spending	12847.82	12722.84	12847.82	1403.69	USD Billion	[+]
Disposable Personal Income	15520.43	14929.76	15520.43	351.90	USD Billion	[+]
Personal Spending	0.40	0.50	2.80	-2.10	percent	[+]
Personal Income	0.40	0.40	4.60	-4.70	percent	[+]
Personal Savings	6.80	3.20	17.00	1.90	percent	[+]
Consumer Credit	10.20	24.30	118.10	-113.40	USD Billion	[+]
Private Sector Credit	9380.95	9347.40	9463.65	39.04	USD Billion	[+]
Bank Lending Rate	5.00	4.89	20.50	2.00	percent	[+]
Economic Optimism Index	58.00	56.40	62.90	35.80		[+]
Redbook Index	4.50	5.60	7.60	-5.80	percent	[+]
Chain Store Sales	3961.00	4410.00	15875.00	3055.00	USD Million	[+]
Gasoline Prices	0.75	0.75	0.99	0.32	USD/Liter	[+]
Households Debt To Gdp	78.70	78.50	98.00	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 August of 2018.