by Calculated Risk on 9/14/2011 08:30:00 AM
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Retail Sales flat in August
On a monthly basis, retail sales were flat from July to August (seasonally adjusted, after revisions), and sales were up 7.2% from August 2010. From the Census Bureau report:
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $389.5 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 7.2 percent (±0.7%) above August 2010.Retail sales excluding autos increased 0.1% in August. Sales for and June and July were revised down.

This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline).
Retail sales are up 17.1% from the bottom, and now 2.9% above the pre-recession peak.
The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993.

The consensus was for retail sales to increase 0.2% in August, and for a 0.3% increase ex-auto.
This was another weak report for August.