August Retail Sales Rose Broadly

The Commerce Department reported(.pdf) that retail sales rose broadly last month, up 0.6 percent in August following an upwardly revised increase of 0.3 percent in July. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.3 percent during each of the last two months and, excluding both autos and gasoline, sales increased 0.5 percent last month after a gain of 0.3 percent in July.

So-called core retail sales, excluding autos, gasoline, building materials, and food service rose 0.4 percent during both July and August, this figure being important because it feeds directly into the calculation of Gross Domestic Product.

Sales gains in dollar terms were led by the auto industry where motor vehicles sales rose 1.5 percent. Building materials & garden equipment sales increased 1.4 percent while the much smaller miscellaneous store retailers category jumped 2.5 percent.

Falling energy prices resulted in gasoline station sales dropping 0.8 percent and general merchandise retailers were the only other major category in the to post a decline, down 0.1 percent.

On a year-over-year basis, retail sales rose to a 13-month high of 5.0 percent, up sharply from the winter slowdown that saw the annual sales gain dip to as low as 1.6 percent.