U.S. Retail Sales Increase in September

NORTH AMERICA–Retail sales in September were up 0.5 percent over August on a seasonally adjusted basis and increased 3.2 percent year-over-year unadjusted, according to the National Retail Federation.

April 6, 2018

Retail sales for the month were also up 3.6 percent on a three-month moving average, compared to 2016.

September retail sales were also up 3.6 percent on a three-month moving average, compared with the same period a year ago.

“Retail appears to have navigated through some rough weather–literally,” says Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist, NRF. “Hurricane impacts were very clear, with a strong boost for building materials going a long way to offset downturns elsewhere. Results were mixed among several business lines but the bottom line was a good increase over August and strong growth from a year ago. While the hurricanes played a major role in the data, they did not fundamentally affect the upward path of the economy.”

Retail highlights from September include:

Building materials and supplies stores were up 2.1 percent over August seasonally adjusted and up 7.7 percent unadjusted year-over-year.
Online and other non-store sales increased 0.5 percent over August and increased 5.8 percent year-over-year.
Clothing and accessories stores increased 0.4 percent from August and were up 4.7 percent year-over-year.
Electronics and appliance stores were down 1.1 percent from August and were down 5.3 year-over-year.
Furniture and home furnishing stores decreased 0.4 percent over August and decreased 0.6 percent year-over-year.
Health and personal care stores decreased 0.4 percent from August and were down 0.6 percent year-over-year.
Sporting goods stores were down 0.2 percent over August and were down 4.1 percent year-over-year.