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Retail sales gained a seasonally-adjusted 2.7% in August, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This follows a 0.2% decline in July. The August results beat analyst expectations soundly, lending support to talk of a recovery. The Cash for Clunkers program is cited as contributing to August sales.
Without autos, sales increased 1.1%, still ahead of the anticipated 0.4% gain. Take gas out of the measure, as well, and retail sales grew 0.6%.
Inventories fell in July, for the twelfth month in a row, with the 1% decline a tad higher than the 0.9% anticipated by many economists.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that wholesale prices gained 1.7% in August, better than twice the 0.8% that economists expected. Wholesale prices slipped 0.9% in July, highlighting the profundity of the turn.
These moves indicate that consumers might be opening their wallets a bit -- an early sign of recovery, as consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity in the United States. A tough labor market, however, is counteracting the early trends in the retail market, with unemployment already at 9.7% and likely to exceed 10% in 2010.
Yet, we may finally be seeing the "jobless recovery" we've heard so much about.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-17-2009 @ 11:21AM
Beltway Greg said...
More than likely pre-holiday ramping-up after what has been a surprising strong summer for some of the retailers.
Here's the deal: I thin we're going to have a surprisingly/gangbusters strong Holiday Season. Why? Because I think folks have been living under a cloud for so long that pappa needs a brand new garment bag and some other stuff and won't be denied at least this year.