Thursday, February 12, 2015

Retail Sales: January 2015

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest nominal read of retail sales showing declining activity in January with sales falling 0.8% from December but rising 3.3% on a year-over-year basis on an aggregate of all items including food, fuel and healthcare services.

Nominal "discretionary" retail sales including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales also slowed, falling 0.23% from December but still rising 4.97% above the level seen in January 2014 while, adjusting for inflation, “real” discretionary retail sales also decreased 0.23% on the month and rose 4.43% since January 2014.