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

Retail sales in the United States edged up 0.1 percent month-over-month in September of 2018, the same as in the previous month and well below market expectations of a 0.6 percent rise. Spending at restaurants and bars went down 1.8 percent, the most since December of 2016. 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 Much Less than Anticipated

Retail sales in the United States edged up 0.1 percent month-over-month in September of 2018, the same as in the previous month and well below market expectations of a 0.6 percent rise. Spending at restaurants and bars went down 1.8 percent, the most since December of 2016.

10 of 13 major retail categories showed month-over-month increases and 3 fell.

Sales went down at food services and drinking places (-1.8 percent compared to 0.3 percent in August); gasoline stations (-0.8 percent compared to 1.1 percent); and health and personal care stores (-0.3 percent compared to 0.5 percent). On the other hand, increases were seen in furniture and home furniture stores (1.1 percent compared to -0.8 percent); nonstore retailers (1.1 percent compared to 0.5 percent); electronics and appliance stores (0.9 percent compared to 0.6 percent); motor vehicles and part dealers (0.8 percent compared to -0.5 percent); sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores (0.7 percent compared to -0.5 percent); clothing and accessories stores (0.5 percent compared to -2.8 percent); general merchandise stores (0.3 percent compared to 0.1 percent); food and beverages stores (0.2 percent compared to -0.3 percent); building material and garden equipment (0.1 percent compared to 0.8 percent); and miscellaneous store retailers (0.1 percent compared to 2.7 percent).

Excluding autos, sales fell 0.1 percent (0.2 percent in August) and excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, core retail sales went up 0.5 percent in September after a downwardly flat reading in August.

Year-on-year, retail trade rose 4.7 percent in September, compared with a downwardly revised 6.5 percent increase in August and the lowest annual gain in seven months.

Considering the third quarter of the year, retail sales rose 1.3 percent over the previous three-month period and 5.9 percent over a year earlier.

US Census Bureau | Joana Taborda | joana.taborda@tradingeconomics.com
10/15/2018 1:04:31 PM

Recent Releases

US Retail Sales Rise the Least in 6 Months
Retail sales in the US edged up 0.1 percent month-over-month in August of 2018, following an upwardly revised 0.7 percent rise in July and well below market expectations of a 0.4 percent increase. It is the smallest gain in retail sales in six months, mainly due to falls in purchases of motor vehicles, clothing and furniture.
Published on 2018-09-14

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.
Published on 2018-08-15

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

Calendar	GMT		Actual	Previous	Consensus	TEForecast
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	0.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.4%
2018-10-15	12:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM	0.1%	0.1%	0.6%	0.3%
2018-11-15	01:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM		0.1%		0.5%
2018-12-14	01:30 PM	Retail Sales MoM				0.4%

United States Consumer	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
Consumer Confidence	99.00	100.10	111.40	51.70	Index Points	[+]
Retail Sales MoM	0.10	0.10	6.70	-3.90	percent	[+]
Retail Sales YoY	4.70	6.50	11.20	-11.50	percent	[+]
Retail Sales Ex Autos	-0.10	0.20	2.60	-4.00	percent	[+]
Consumer Spending	12842.02	12722.84	12842.02	1403.69	USD Billion	[+]
Disposable Personal Income	15617.39	15566.48	15617.39	351.90	USD Billion	[+]
Personal Spending	0.30	0.40	2.80	-2.10	percent	[+]
Personal Income	0.30	0.30	4.60	-4.70	percent	[+]
Personal Savings	6.60	6.70	17.30	2.20	percent	[+]
Consumer Credit	20.08	16.60	118.08	-113.42	USD Billion	[+]
Private Sector Credit	9412.35	9383.23	9463.65	39.04	USD Billion	[+]
Bank Lending Rate	5.03	5.00	20.50	2.00	percent	[+]
Economic Optimism Index	57.80	55.70	62.90	35.80		[+]
Redbook Index	5.80	6.50	7.60	-5.80	percent	[+]
Chain Store Sales	3979.00	3782.00	15875.00	3055.00	USD Million	[+]
Gasoline Prices	0.75	0.75	0.99	0.32	USD/Liter	[+]
Households Debt To Gdp	77.30	78.00	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 October of 2018.