US retail sales grew in March after two straight months of declines, but gains remained moderate as consumers continued to be concerned by rising tariffs, according to the CNBC\/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released by the National Retail Federation (NRF).<\/p>\n
Matthew Shay, President and CEO, NRF, said, \u201cRetail sales increased in March but only moderately, and the spending came before the president\u2019s \u2018Liberation Day\u2019 tariff announcement. The pullback we\u2019ve seen the past few months comes despite strong economic fundamentals. A major factor appears to be driven by the uncertainty caused by tariffs. March\u2019s increase is partly the result of stocking up to get ahead of tariffs. With the economic outlook unclear and the situation fluid, consumer sentiment is weakening, and many consumers are shifting disposable income into savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 0.6% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 4.75% unadjusted year over year in March, according to the Retail Monitor. That compared with a decrease of 0.22% month over month and an increase of 3.38% year over year in February.<\/p>\n
The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales (excluding restaurants in addition to automobile dealers and gasoline stations) was up 0.4% month over month in March and up 5.07% year over year. That compared with a decrease of 0.22% month over month and an increase of 4.11% year over year in February.<\/p>\n
Total sales were up 4.52% year over year for the first three months of the year and core sales were up 4.96%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US retail sales grew in March after two straight months of declines, but gains remained moderate as consumers continued to be concerned by rising tariffs, according to the CNBC\/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released by the National Retail Federation (NRF). Matthew Shay, President and CEO, NRF, said, \u201cRetail sales increased in March but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-31019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulletin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n