Recent Updates
- World Trade Monitor (Nov)
- Spain: Auto Production (Dec)
- Thailand: Trade Indexes (Dec)
- Georgia: Number of Financial Institutions & Amount of Capital, Consumer Loans, Commercial Banks' Loans (Dec)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Composite PMIs...the Best of Times; the Worst of Times-Really?
PMI data now rank observations on their range of values since December 2016...
U.S. Housing Starts Rise Again in December
Housing starts increased 5.8% (5.2% y/y) during December to 1.669 million...
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Jumps in January
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Factory Sector Business Conditions Index jumped to January to 26.5...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Ease, but Are Still High
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 900,000 in the week ended January 16...
French Surveys Improve Despite Ongoing Virus Issues
The spread of the virus in Franc is still untamed...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller February 14, 2020
Total retail sales including food service establishments increased 0.3% (4.4% y/y) during January following a 0.2% December gain, revised from 0.3%. The increase matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Retail sales excluding motor vehicles & parts also rose an expected 0.3% (4.0% y/y) last month after a 0.6% increase in December, revised from 0.7%.
Retail sales alone edged 0.1% higher (4.0% y/y) following no change last month, which was revised from 0.4%. A 3.1% decline (0.0% y/y) in apparel store sales weakened the result as it followed December's 2.7% jump. A 2.1% (-1.3% y/y) rise in building materials store sales offset most of this weakening. Motor vehicles purchases improved 0.2% (5.7% y/y) as unit sales of light vehicles (reported earlier this month) rose 1.1%. Nonstore retail sales increased 0.3% (8.4% y/y) after four straight months of decline. General merchandise store sales rose 0.5% (2.1% y/y), up for the fourth straight month. Furniture & home furnishings store sales improved 0.6% (1.8% y/y) following a 1.6% decline, but electronics & appliance store sales eased 0.5% (-3.2% y/y), and reversed December's rise. Sporting goods, hobby, book & music store sales gained 0.1% (-1.8% y/y) following little change.
Gasoline & service station sales eased 0.5% (+10.4% y/y) as gasoline prices declined.
In the nondiscretionary sales categories, food & grocery store sales improved 0.2% (2.3% y/y) after rising 0.5% in December. Sales of health & personal care product stores offset this gain with a 0.4% decline (-1.9% y/y), and they've been declining steadily since the middle of last year.
Restaurant sales increased 1.2% (7.4% y/y), the same as in December, which was revised from 0.2%.
The retail sales data can be found in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics forecast is in the AS1REPNA database.
Retail Spending (% chg) | Jan | Dec | Nov | Jan Y/Y | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Retail Sales & Food Services | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 4.4 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 4.6 |
Excluding Autos | 0.3 | 0.6 | -0.2 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 5.5 | 5.0 |
Retail Sales | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
Retail Less Autos | 0.1 | 0.5 | -0.1 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 5.3 | 4.8 |
Motor Vehicle & Parts | 0.2 | -1.7 | 1.6 | 5.7 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 3.4 |
Gasoline Service Stations | -0.5 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 10.4 | 0.4 | 12.6 | 8.9 |
Food Service & Drinking Places Sales | 1.2 | 1.2 | -0.6 | 7.4 | 4.4 | 6.3 | 5.9 |