Retail sales continue to show very slow growth rates   

Seasonally adjusted real retail sales increased in September to $174.3 billion. (Note that actual sales are deflated using CPI 1982-84=100.) Year-over-year growth was 3.9%, the seventh month in a row under 5%. From peak (Sep '07) to current, retail sales are off 3.4%, a much smaller percentage decline than what has occurred in the housing and auto markets. September sales were 11.3% 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.