Retail sales remain flat   

Seasonally adjusted real retail sales dropped slightly in August to $172.1 billion. (Note that actual sales are deflated using CPI 1982-84=100.) Year-over-year growth was 3.1%, the sixth month in a row under 5%. From peak (Sep '07) to current, retail sales are off 4.5%, a much smaller percentage decline than what has occurred in the housing and auto markets. August sales were 10.0% 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.