Our measure of core retail sales is the unadjusted year-over-year change, excluding gasoline and automobiles. This metric stood at 2.7% in February, weakening from a revised 4.9% in January, but well ahead of the 0.1% decline in December. [caption id="attachment_82550" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Data are not seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau[/caption]   Retail Sales Decline Month Over Month The Census Bureau’s own core metric is seasonally adjusted retail sales including automobiles and gasoline. Sales by this measure grew 2.1% year over year in February, down from the 2.6% rate seen in January. On a month-over-month basis and seasonally adjusted, retail sales declined 0.2% in February. [caption id="attachment_82551" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Data are seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau[/caption]   Retail Sales Growth by Sector Out of 12 major retail sectors, six witnessed a sequential deceleration in year-over-year growth in February; and four sectors saw sales decline year over year.

• Seasonally adjusted, sales in the building materials and garden equipment sector (i.e., home-improvement) grew 1.4% year over year in February, a sharp downturn from 9.8% growth in January.
• Nonstore retailers, which include high-growth Internet retailers, registered year-over-year growth of 10.0% in February versus 10.7% in January.
• Electronics and appliance retailers’ sales declined 3.1% year over year in February, after falling 1.7% in January.
• Grocery stores’ growth slowed to 2.1% in February from 3.8% in January.
• Clothing stores’ sales growth also deteriorated, to 0.8% in February from 1.9% in January.
• In February, department stores and furniture stores posted sales declines of 4.0% and 2.3%, respectively, worsening from the declines of 3.5% and 1.5% in January.