by Calculated Risk on 1/14/2014 08:39:00 AM
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Retail Sales increased 0.2% in December
On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.2% from November to December (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 4.7% from December 2012. Sales in November were revised down from a 0.7% increase to 0.4%. From the Census Bureau report:
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $431.9 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous month, and 4.1 percent (±0.7%) above December 2012. ... The October to November 2013 percent change was revised from +0.7 percent to +0.4 percent.
![Retail Sales](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFHn_29qYUtyR08kMXhF7YRACqettiy8MzISTK1Echg_Q2FJN3v1ENiYykQnWMKJ_Vk8GktKz4JTdZ2_6FeGlpGPF7mMkwnWpcmQOD-4OOxn9Ld8YEDRlZESo1J9S3aXGpAEwK/s320/RetailDec2013.jpg)
This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline).
Retail sales ex-autos increased 0.7%.
The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993.
![Year-over-year change in Retail Sales](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKyIafdArFR9UC-2FzqoVzVGE_JRiFKcB1iNm1R6ij0tjA9goFzjlt_W3Xs1u0A8nEUFCvDVwf1TGgEUOrJkGgHxJTNFqGjnBcE9I7UQgKuiBA26wD16g8x84PlJOgc8MBF0g/s320/RetailYoYDec2013.jpg)
The increase in December was above consensus expectations, but was close including the downward revision to November.