The Commerce
Department announced on Monday that sales at U.S. retailers advanced by 0.2 per cent m-o-m in February,
following a downwardly revised 1.2 per cent m-o-m decline (from -0.9 per cent m-o-m) in January.
Economists had forecast
total sales would rebound 0.6 per
cent m-o-m in February.
According to
the report, the February gain
in the total retail sales was
due to increases in 5 of all 13 retail categories, led by non-store retailers (+2.4
per cent m-o-m), health and personal care stores (+1.7 per cent m-o-m), and food
and beverage stores (+0.4 per cent m-o-m).). Meanwhile, food services and
drinking places (-1.5 per cent m-o-m), gasoline stations (-1.0 per cent m-o-m), and clothing and clothing accessories stores (-0.6 per cent m-o-m) posted the
steepest decreases in retail sales in February.
Excluding auto,
retail sales went up 0.3 per cent m-o-m in February after a downwardly revised
0.6 per cent m-o-m drop (from -0.4 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, slightly missing economists’
estimate of a 0.4 per cent m-o-m rise.
In y-o-y terms,
U.S. retail sales soared 3.1 per cent in February after a downwardly revised 3.9
per cent surge (from +4.2 per
cent) in the previous month. This marked the weakest annual increase since October
2024 (+3.0 per cent).