Our measure of core retail sales is the unadjusted year-over-year change, excluding gasoline and automobiles. This metric increased by 3.7% year over year in January, recovering from the revised 0.1% decline in December, but much below the 5.2% and 5.6% increases in November and October, respectively. [caption id="attachment_80132" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Data are not seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau[/caption]   Retail Sales Remained Almost Flat Month Over Month The Census Bureau’s own core metric is seasonally adjusted retail sales including automobiles and gasoline. Sales by this measure grew 1.9% year over year in January, up from the 1.2% rate seen in December. On a month-over-month basis and seasonally adjusted, retail sales grew 0.2% in January. [caption id="attachment_80134" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Data is seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau[/caption]   Retail Sales Growth by Sector Eight out of 13 major sectors saw year-over-year growth improve in January. Seasonally adjusted, the building material and garden equipment sector (i.e., home improvement) grew 8.7% year over year in January, its biggest jump since late 2017. Nonstore retailers, which include high-growth Internet retailers, registered year-over-year growth of 7.3%, a sharp upturn from the 2.0% growth reported in December. Grocery store year-over-year growth improved from 1.5% in December to 3.5% in January. Clothing store sales growth rate slowed to 1.6% in January from 4.0% in December. General merchandise stores grew sales 2.2%, while department stores experienced a decline of 3.0%.