US retail sales rise a bit less quickly than expected in December
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 16 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - Consumer spend in the US slowed a tad at the tail-end of 2024, but sufficed for economists to lift their fourth quarter growth forecasts.
According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms retail sales volumes expanded at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% in December to reach $729.2bn (consensus: 0.6%).
The prior month's estimate meanwhile was revised higher by a tenth of a percentage point to reveal a rate of expansion of 0.8%.
Sales of motor vehicles and parts increased by 0.7% on the month and those at furniture and home furnishing stores by 2.3%.
Gasoline station sales jumped by 1.5% on the back of a dearer price of petrol which surged by 4.4%.
Building materials and garden equipment sales however declined by 2.0%.
Sales at non-store retailers were up by 0.2% on the month following a 1.7% rise in November.
So-called 'control group' sales grew by a larger-than-expected 0.7%.
On the back of Thursday's data, Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics estimated that real consumption expanded at a monthly clip of 0.4%.
In turn, the economist lifted his projection for the rate of increase in fourth quarter GDP to an annualised clip of 2.9%, against 2.7% beforehand.
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