US retail sales unexpectedly inch higher

Retail sales unexpectedly rose in August, though growth was only minor suggesting that consumers remained cautious about spending in light of tough economic conditions.

According to the US Census Bureau, advance retail and food services sales rose to $710.8bn last month, up 0.1% from July.

That was down from an upwardly revised 1.1% monthly gain in July (0.1 percentage points higher than the initial estimate), which was the highest rate of growth seen since early 2023.

However, it was still better than the 0.2% decline expected by economists.

According to the data, sales would have been 0.2% higher when ignoring sales from motor vehicle/parts dealers and sales from gasoline stations – often stripped out as they are more volatile measures each month – which accounted for $134bn and $52bn of the total, respectively.

Sales from furniture and home-goods stores, food and beverage stores and clothing stores all fell 0.7% over the month, while electronics and appliance store sales dropped 1.1%. That was offset by a big increase in online sales (1.4%) and sales growth in other smaller categories.