WASHINGTON – U.S. retail and food-service sales increased 1.0 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted $385.4 billion, according to a report today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase follows an April gain of 0.4 percent that had previously been reported as decline.
Analysts had expected overall sales to rise 0.5 percent in May after falling the originally reported 0.2 percent in April, based on the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. (Their May forecasts ranged from a decline of 0.3 percent to an increase of 1.2 percent.)
Excluding gasoline, the overall increase amounted to 0.8 percent, the Census Bureau said. Gasoline station sales rose 2.6 percent, as fuel prices surged to new records.
Total sales excluding motor vehicles and parts rose 1.2 percent, exceeding the survey’s prediction of a 0.7-percent gain. But auto dealership and parts stores still saw sales rise 0.3 percent last month, after falling 2.1 percent the month before.
Retail trade sales rose 1.0 percent compared with April, after rising 0.3 percent the month before. Sales at Internet vendors and other nonstore retailers rose 1.6 percent, slowing from April’s 3.2-percent gain.
Sales at food-services and drinking places rose 0.8 percent, slowing from April’s 1.2-percent increase. Sales at furniture stores rose 0.4 percent, while sales of electronics and sporting goods rose 0.7 percent.
The only decline compared with April was in miscellaneous retailers, which saw sales fall 0.6 percent in May after rising 0.4 percent the month before.
“The gain is largely because of the [federal economic-stimulus] rebate, but maybe the American consumer is just hanging in a lot better than we anticipated,” Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, told Bloomberg News. “It casts more doubt on whether the economy is in a recession.”
Compared with May 2007, total sales rose 2.6 percent. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales rose 4.9 percent year-over-year.
In other year-over-year changes, retail trade sales rose 2.2 percent, sales at nonstore retailers rose 10.0 percent and gas station sales surged 13.8 percent. Food-service sales rose 5.1 percent.
Additional information, including the full Advance Monthly Sales for Retail Trade and Food Services news release, is available from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau at www.census.gov/retail.
