US retail sales rose more than expected in July

US retail sales rose in July for the fourth month in a row, helped by a big boost from Amazon Prime Day.

The Commerce Department revealed that retail sales increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in July. This followed a revised 0.3% gain in June and surpassed economists' predictions of 0.4% growth.

Excluding auto sales, sales growth jumped to 1% from 0.2%, well ahead of the 0.4% gain expected.

"Consumers’ spending appears to have made a strong start to the third quarter, and we cannot dismiss the conclusion that the trend in real consumers’ spending growth is reaccelerating," said Kieran Clancy, senior US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

However, Clancy did highlight that last month's figures were helped by Amazon Prime Day, with total online sales leaping 1.9% and contributing 0.56 percentage points to the monthly headline total – so there will likely be some reversal of this support in the coming months.