DIpil Das
Our measure of core retail sales is the unadjusted year-over-year change, excluding gasoline and automobiles. This metric stood at 0.7% in March, weakening from 2.5% in February and January’s 4.9%.
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Data is not seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau/Coresight Research[/caption] Retail Sales Grow Month Over Month The Census Bureau’s own core metric is seasonally adjusted retail sales including automobiles and gasoline. Sales by this measure grew 3.5% year over year in March, up from the 1.9% rate seen in February. On a month-over-month basis and seasonally adjusted, retail sales increased 1.7% in March. [caption id="attachment_85012" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Data is seasonally adjusted
Source: US Census Bureau[/caption] Retail Sales Growth by Sector Out of thirteen major retail sectors, only three saw a sales decline year over year in March.
Data is not seasonally adjustedSource: US Census Bureau/Coresight Research[/caption] Retail Sales Grow Month Over Month The Census Bureau’s own core metric is seasonally adjusted retail sales including automobiles and gasoline. Sales by this measure grew 3.5% year over year in March, up from the 1.9% rate seen in February. On a month-over-month basis and seasonally adjusted, retail sales increased 1.7% in March. [caption id="attachment_85012" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Data is seasonally adjustedSource: US Census Bureau[/caption] Retail Sales Growth by Sector Out of thirteen major retail sectors, only three saw a sales decline year over year in March.
- Seasonally adjusted, sales in the building materials and garden equipment sector (i.e., home improvement) grew 3.3% year over year in March, a sharp uplift from 1.1% growth in February.
- Clothing and furniture store sales grew 1.5% and 1.1% in March, reversing the declines of 2.3% and 0.3%, respectively, in February.
- Grocery store growth increased to 2.1% in March from the revised 1.1% in February.
- In March, department stores posted a sales decline of 3.7%, a slight improvement from the 4.0% decline in January.
- Miscellaneous store retailers’ sales decreased 1.2% in March, slowing from the 4.4% decline in February.
- Nonstore retailers, which include high-growth Internet retailers, registered year-over-year growth of 11.6% in March versus 10.9% in February.
- Electronics and appliance retailer sales declined 2.7% year over year in March, after falling 3.4% in February.