Retail sales account for a large part of consumer spending, which itself is typically the largest segment of GDP in an advanced economy. Changes in retail sales have a large effect on GDP growth rates and thus they are of great interest to economists, policy makers and financial markets.
US retail sales had been weak through the Christmas period and into the first couple of months in 2018 but then figures for March and April marked a departure from this trend. The latest May figures have added further evidence of buoyant consumer spending.
According to the latest “advance” sales numbers released by the US Census Bureau, retail sales grew by 0.8% over the month and by 5.9% when compared with the same period last year. The figures were twice as much as the expected figure as well as April’s comparable figure after it had been revised up from +0.3% to +0.4%.
