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Economy in Brief
Canadian Retail Sales Weaken As Inflation Slows
Canada's retail sales show relatively widespread deceleration...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Strengthen
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.5% (7.0% y/y) during September...
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Growth Continues; Pricing Pressure Eases
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index dipped to 22.2 during October...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Ease
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 210,000 (-8.7% y/y) during the week ended October 13...
U.K. Retail Sales: Doing Well-As-Can-Be-Expected Despite September Drop
U.K. retail sales and growth have all held up remarkably well- so far...
by Tom Moeller April 2, 2013
The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales surged 4.7% last week (2.3% y/y) to the highest level on record. The gain pulled March sales 2.6% above the February average which ticked up 0.1% from January. During the last ten years there has been a 61% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and the change in retail sales at general merchandise stores. That correlation recently has declined.
General merchandise store sales account for 15% of total retail sales. The ICSC-Goldman Sachs retail chain-store sales index is constructed using the same-store sales (stores open for one year) reported by 78 stores of seven retailers: Dayton Hudson, Federated, Kmart, May, J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart.
The chain store figures can be found in Haver's SURVEYW database.
| ICSC-Goldman Sachs (SA, 1977=100) | 03/30/13 | 03/23/13 | 03/16/13 | Y/Y | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Weekly Chain Store Sales | 559.3 | 534.1 | 543.5 | 1.9% | 3.0% | 3.2% | 2.9% |
| W/W % | 4.7 | -1.7 | 1.4 | -- | -- | -- |
