Retail sales rise more than expected last month

Posted Dec 11th 2009 4:40PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news, Products and Services, Consumer Experience, Market Matters, Recession, Financial Crisis

The retail industry got some good news today as the Commerce Department announced that retail sales rose more than expected last month.

Before today's report, analysts had predicted that we would see a 0.7% jump in retail sales last month, but the actual figures showed a much higher 1.3% increase during the month. This comes on the heels of a 1.1% increase in October.

The better than expected sales increase was not the only piece of good news for the retail industry, as the preliminary reading on the Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index showed that consumer confidence has risen to 73.4 this month, up from 67.4 at the end of November and higher than the 68.8 that analysts had been expecting.

The overall strong retail sales figures were lead by strong receipts from gasoline stations, increased purchases of motor vehicles and parts, building materials and electronic goods.

Today's news is a positive sign that Americans are starting to take more optimistic view regarding the overall economy. As the economy continues to regain its footing, consumer spending is going to be key.

One final report today showed that for the first time in over a year business inventories rose during November.

Combined the reports are an encouraging sign the increased spending is helping to convince business will begin restocking their depleted shelves, which will give a boost to factory production and broaden the economic recovery.

What is your current view of the economy? Do you think that the worst has passed, or should we expect to see things get worse next year?

Tags: consumer, consumer confidence, consumer spending, ConsumerConfidence, ConsumerSpending, economic recovery, EconomicRecovery, featured, production, recession