Retail sales were flat in July
Posted By:
Tom Sanderson
Date Posted:
Friday, August 26, 2011
6:06 PM
Seasonally adjusted real retail sales were flat in July at $173.2 billion. (Note that actual sales are deflated using CPI 1982-84=100.) Year-over-year growth was 4.8%, the fifth month in a row under 5%. From peak (Sep '07) to current, retail sales are off 4.0%, a much smaller percentage decline than what has occurred in the housing and auto markets. July sales were 10.7% higher than the trough (Mar '09) of the recent recession. Real retail sales have only recovered to the levels of early 2005, which is not much of a recovery. The vertical bars in the graph represent recessions.
