US retail sales fall short of forecasts in June, but growth still seen

Retail sales volumes in the States fell short of forecasts in June amid less spending at gasoline stations and on sporting goods and books.

Total retail sales declined by 0.2% month-on-month to reach $473.5bn, according to the Department of Commerce.

That was less than the 0.1% gain expected, although May's reading was marked up from a 0.3% fall to -0.1%.

Excluding automobiles, sales were even weaker, falling by 0.2% on the month, instead of the 0.2% increased which had been expected.

Sales at gasoline stations registered the largest drop, shriking by 1.3% to $219.85bn, alongside a 0.6% fall in sales at sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores to $38.69bn.

In comparison to a year ago, retail sales were 2.8% higher.

Despite the "fairly broad-based" decline in June retail sales, Michael Pearce, US economist at Capital Economics, pointed to still robust consumer sentiment as an indicator that consumption would still grow at a steady pace over the remainder of the year.

He also pointed out that in terms of quarterly rates of change consumption had rebounded from a quarterly pace of expansion of 1.4% in the first three months of 2017 to a rate of between 2.5% and 3.0%.