by Calculated Risk on 5/13/2016 08:38:00 AM

On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 1.3% from March to April (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 3.0% from April 2015.

From the Census Bureau report:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $453.4 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent from the previous month, and 3.0 percent above April 2015. ... The February 2016 to March 2016 percent change was revised from down 0.4 percent to down 0.3 percent.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline).

Retail sales ex-gasoline were up 1.2%.

The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993.

Retail and Food service sales ex-gasoline increased by 4.1% on a YoY basis.

The increase in April was above expectations for the month, and retail sales for February and March were revised up. A strong report.