The Commerce
Department announced on Thursday that sales at U.S. retailers rose by 0.4 per cent m-o-m in September,
following an unrevised 0.1 per cent
m-o-m uptick in August.
This represented the third
straight monthly advance in retail sales.
Economists had forecast
total sales would increase 0.3 per
cent m-o-m in September.
According to
the report, the September rise
in the total retail sales was underpinned by gains in 9 of all 13 retail
categories, led by miscellaneous store retailers (+4.0 per cent m-o-m), clothing
and clothing accessories stores(+1.5 per cent m-o-m), and health and personal
care stores (+1.0 per cent m-o-m). These increases, however, were offset by declines in such 3 categories as electronics
and appliance stores (-3.3 per cent m-o-m), gasoline stations (-1.6 per cent
m-o-m) and furniture and home furnishings stores (-1.4 per cent m-o-m). Motor
vehicle and parts dealers demonstrated no change in retail sales last month.
Excluding auto,
retail sales also rose 0.5 per cent m-o-m in September after an upwardly revised
0.2 per cent gain m-o-m (from +0.1 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, exceeding economists’ forecast of a 0.1 per cent m-o-m increase.
In y-o-y terms,
U.S. retail sales jumped 1.7 per cent in September after an upwardly revised 2.2
per cent surge (from +2.1 per
cent) in the previous month. This marked the softest annual increase in retail
sales since January (+0.3 per
cent y-o-y).