US retail sales volumes slip in December

US retail sales slipped in December as sales of clothing and at gasoline stations fell, capping off their worst year since 2009.

Volumes declined 0.1% month-on-month to $448.1bn in seasonally adjusted terms, according the Department of Commerce.

Sales excluding those of vehicles and parts retreated by an identical percentage.

Analysts had penciled in a decline of 0.1% in headline retail sales.

In comparison to the previous month, some of the largest drops were seen in sales at gasoline stations, which were off by -1.1% to $33.9bn, and those of clothing and clothing accessories, which slipped -0.9% to $21.2bn.

The latter may have been impacted by warmer than usual temperatures.

Over the whole of 2015 retail sales expended by just 2.1%, despite the plummeting price of crude oil.

Retail sales excluding both automobiles and gasoline, so-called 'core' sales, shrank by 0.3% (consensus: 0.3%).

Readings on core sales for the previous two months were also revised lower in today's report, Barclays's Jesse Hurwitz pointed out.

Hurwitz lowered his tracking estimate for the rate of growth in fourth quarter US GDP from an annualised pace of 0.7% estimated on 8 January to 0.4%.

Nonetheless, "we find the signal from labor market data has historically been more reliable for gauging the overall state of the US business cycle, but this morning’s data are likely to lead to a weak advance estimate of Q4 GDP growth," the economist said.