WASHINGTON — Retail sales in November and December rose 4% from a year earlier to $658.3 billion as consumers spent more freely than expected during the holiday period, according to the National Retail Federation. Non-store sales increased 12.6% to $122.9 billion. NRF’s figures exclude spending on automobiles, gasoline and restaurant meals. “These numbers show that
WASHINGTON — Retail sales in the United States rose 1.3% in April, the Commerce Department announced. It was the largest monthly gain since March 2015 and better than the 0.8% increase economists were forecasting. Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, shot up 0.9% last month after an upwardly revised
WASHINGTON – Retail sales increased 0.1% in October after being unchanged in September and August, the Commerce Department said. So-called core retail sales rose 0.2% last month after increasing 0.1% in September, the government noted. Core sales exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food, and therefore correspond more closely to the consumer spending component of