NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. retail stores open at least one year rose 0.2 percent over the past week, reversing the previous week’s 0.9-percent decline, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC report for the seven days ending Aug. 18, Bloomberg News said.
The ICSC-UBS report cited cooler weather across much of the nation, and sales-tax holidays in many states, which helped boost back-to-school and summer-clearance shopping.
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Compared with the same week of 2006, same-store sales rose 2.7 percent last week, accelerating from their 2.3 percent in the week ended Aug. 11.
“Sales got a lift from a confluence of factors,” said Michael Niemira, the ICSC’s chief economist.
For all of August, same-store sales will increase by 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent compared with the same month last year, the ICSC predicted in today’s report.
The International Council of Shopping Centers, 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. Additional information is available at www.icsc.org.
