Retail sales growth is slowing
Posted By:
Tom Sanderson
Date Posted:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
9:15 AM
Seasonally adjusted real retail sales increased slightly in April to $173.5 billion from $173.3 billion in March. (Note that actual sales are deflated using CPI 1982-84=100.) Year-over-year growth was 4.3% down from 4.8% in March. March broke a string of six straight months above 6% growth. From peak (Sep '07) to current, retail sales are only off 3.8%, a much smaller percentage decline than what has occurred in the housing and auto markets. March sales were 10.9% higher than the trough (Mar '09) of the recent recession. The vertical bars in the graph represent recessions.
