Our measure of core retail sales is the unadjusted year-over-year change, excluding gasoline and automobiles. This metric stood at 5.1% in April, strengthening from 0.9% in March and February’s 2.5%. A late Easter this year contributed to March’s weakness and April’s bounce, in unadjusted terms. [caption id="attachment_88309" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Data is not seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau/Coresight Research [/caption]   Retail Sales Declines Month Over Month The Census Bureau’s own core metric is seasonally adjusted retail sales including automobiles and gasoline. Sales by this measure grew 2.8% year over year in April, down from the 3.6% growth rate seen in March. On a month-over-month basis and seasonally adjusted, retail sales declined 0.2% in April. [caption id="attachment_88310" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Data is seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau [/caption]   Retail Sales Growth by Sector The figures below are seasonally adjusted. [caption id="attachment_88311" align="aligncenter" width="729"] Data is seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau [/caption]