Retail sales rose 0.5% in March amid an inflation jump
Key takeaways:
- In March, retail sales rose 0.5%, increasing gasoline prices by a big jump.
- Import costs ascended 2.6%, the most significant one-month jump since 2011.
- Unemployed claims increased by 185,000 and were up more than anticipated.
According to government data released Thursday, customers continued spending in March even as inflation grew to its highest level since late 1981.
Retail sales rose 0.5% from the last month, just less than the 0.6% Dow Jones estimate and a slowdown from the upwardly adjusted 0.8% gain in February.
The action came with inflation growing 1.2% for the month as calculated by the customer price index.
Retail sales data is not modified for inflation.
Thus, the biggest gain in sales for the month game was at gas stations, which witnessed an 8.9% growth in sales as gasoline prices increased 18.3%. The sector has seen a 37% sales explosion over the past year.
By contrast, online sales declined sharply, dropping 6.4% for the month. General merchandise shops saw a gain of 5.4%, sporting goods and electronics shops both had 3.3% gains, and sales at food and beverage stocks and bars and restaurants grew 1%.
Retail sales much increased 6.9% from a year back, during which CPI inflation surged 8.5%, the highest level since December 1981.
In other economic data, initial unemployed claims increased to 185,000 for the week ended April 9, 18,000 from the last week and beyond the estimate of 172,000. Continued shares, which run a week behind the headline, dropped by 48,000 to 1.475 million.