WASHINGTON – U.S. retail and food-service sales increased a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent from the month before to an estimated $380.2 billion in September, after rising 0.3 percent in August, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today.
The rise exceeded the 0.2-percent median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 77 economists.
Retail sales rose 0.6 percent to $342.5 billion from their August level, as food service sales remained essentially unchanged. Excluding automobiles, sales rose 0.4 percent.
Leading the overall rise were a 2.0-percent increase in retail sales at gasoline stations, reversing August’s 2.6-percent decline; a 1.2-percent rise in sales of auto vehicles and parts, slowing from August’s 3.3-percent gain; a 1.1-percent rise in sales at nonstore retailers; a 1.0-percent increase at health and personal care stores; a 0.9-percent gain at electronic and appliance stores; and a 0.8-percent rise in sales at food and beverage merchants.
Losing ground were miscellaneous stores (-1.3 percent); sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores (-0.7 percent); furniture and home furnishings (-0.6 percent); clothing and accessories shops (-0.4 percent); and department and other general merchandise stores (-0.1 percent).
Total sales for the first nine months of the year were 4.2 percent higher than in the same period a year ago.
“Consumers are just staying resilient in the face of economic difficulty,” Ryan Reed, an economist at National City Corp. in Cleveland, told Bloomberg News. “Housing will remain a drag on the economy, but the labor market and equity-price increases are keeping consumer spending growing.”
Compared with September 2006, retail and food-service sales rose 5.0 percent last month, led by a 9.6-percent increase in gasoline station sales and an 8.7-percent increase in sales at nonstore retailers.
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.
