Sales at U.S. retailers rose 0.3 percent over the past week, after edging up 0.2 percent the week before, in the International Council of Shopping Centers report for the seven days ended March 31, Bloomberg News said.
Compared with year-ago levels, sales surged 4.9 percent last week, after rising 4.6 percent the week before. “Consumers have had the motivation to spend,” Michael Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist and director of research, said in a statement.
The ICSC credited warmer weather and an early Easter (April 8) with boosting March sales at the expense of April’s, and predicted total March sales will come in as much as 5 percent higher than in March 2006.
“In the run-up to Easter, consumables, apparel and toys – along with early lawn and garden products – typically benefit,” Michelle Tan, a New York-based analyst with UBS, told Bloomberg.
The ICSC, a New York-based trade group, and investment bank UBS track same-store sales at about 60 chains that represent about 10 percent of U.S. retail sales.
