United States Retail Sales Mom

Last Release

Mar 31, 2024

Actual

0.7

Units In

0.9

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

May 15, 2024

Time to Release

29 Days 3 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
18.2 May 2020	-14.7 Apr 2020	0.4 %	1992-2024	U.S. Census Bureau

Retail sales report in the US provides aggregated measure of sales of retail goods and services over a period of a month. There are thirteen major types of retailers: Motor vehicle & parts dealers (around 20 percent of total sales), Food & beverage stores (13%), General merchandise stores (12.5%), Food services & drinking places (11%), Gasoline stations (10%), Nonstore retailers (9.2%), Building material & garden dealers (6%), Health & personal care stores (6%), Clothing & clothing accessories stores (5%), Miscellaneous store retailers (2.3%), Furniture stores (2%), Electronics & appliance stores (2%) and Sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores (1.7%).

Latest Updates

Retail sales in the US rose 0.7% month-over-month in March 2024, following an upwardly revised 0.9% gain in February and much higher than forecasts of 0.3%, suggesting consumer spending remains robust. Eight out of 13 categories posted increases. Major increases were seen in sales at nonstore retailers (2.7%), gasoline stations (2.1%), miscellaneous store retailers (2.1%), and building materials and garden equipment (0.7%). Gains were also recorded at food and beverages stores (0.5%), health and personal care stores (0.4%) and food services and drinking places (0.4%). On the other hand, sales were down for sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, & book stores (-1.8%), clothing (-1.6%), electronics and appliances (-1.2%), general merchandise stores (-1.1%), autos (-0.9%) and furniture (-0.3%). Excluding food services, auto dealers, building materials stores and gasoline stations, the so-called core retail sales which are used to calculate GDP, jumped 1.1%.