Retail sales continue to climb
Posted By:
Tom Sanderson
Date Posted:
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
3:00 PM
Seasonally adjusted real retail sales increased in February to $174.2 billion from $173.4 billion in January. (Note that actual sales are deflated using CPI 1982-84=100.) Year-over-year growth was 6.6%, marking the sixth straight month above 6% growth. From peak (Dec '06) to current, retail sales are only off 3.4%, a much smaller percentage decline than what has occurred in the housing and auto markets. February sales were 10.1% higher than the trough (Mar '09) of the recent recession. The vertical bars in the graph represent recessions.
