Retail and food-service sales rebound in January

WASHINGTON – U.S. retail and food-service sales rose last month, led by increases in spending on cars, clothes and gasoline, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census.
Total sales rose 0.3 percent compared with December, to a seasonally adjusted $382.9 billion, the Census Bureau said. The unexpected increase followed an equally unexpected decline the month before, when retail and food-service sales fell 0.4 percent. (READ MORE)
The retail component of sales increased 0.4 percent in January to $344.59 billion, erasing a 0.4-percent December decline that had been the first monthly decrease since June. Analysts had expected retail sales to fall 0.3 percent in January, based on a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
Excluding the often-volatile motor vehicles and parts sector, total sales rose 0.3 percent to $306.18 billion, erasing December’s 0.3-percent decline. The increase was led by gasoline stations (+2.0 percent), clothing and accessory stores (+1.4 percent), sporting goods, hobby, book and music shops (+1.3 percent), and miscellaneous store retailers (+1.0 percent), health and personal care stores (+0.8 percent), food and beverage stores (+0.6 percent) and non-store retailers such as Internet vendors (+0.5 percent).
Sales at general merchandise stores rose 0.1 percent, despite a 1.1-percent decline at non-luxury department stores. Losing ground last month were building and garden supply stores (-1.7 percent), electronics and appliance stores (-1.0 percent), and furniture and home furnishings retailers (-0.5 percent).
Meanwhile, food service and drinking-place sales fell 0.5 percent in January to $38.31 billion, after rising 1.1 percent in December.
Compared with January 2007, total retail and food-service sales rose 3.9 percent. Food service and drinking-place sales rose 4.4 percent year-over-year while retail sales rose 3.8 percent year-over-year. Sales excluding auto vehicles and parts rose 4.9 percent, led by a 23.0-percent increase in sales at gasoline stations and a 10.6-percent rise in sales by non-store retailers.
“Today’s report will diminish recession anxieties, but it doesn’t dispel them altogether,” Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City Corp. in Cleveland, told Bloomberg News.
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.