United States: Retail sales growth rises in August
Retail sales grew 0.6% month-on-month in seasonally-adjusted terms in August (July: +0.5% mom), triple market expectations. The reading was largely driven by a surge in gasoline station sales, and rebounds in motor vehicle and parts dealers and electronics and appliance stores sales. That said, the July expansion was revised down from 0.7%, which provided a more favorable base of comparison. On an annual basis, retail sales rose 2.5% in August, which was below July’s 2.6% expansion.
Taken together, July–August data for retail sales, together with July’s rapid growth in overall consumer spending (covering goods and services) suggests a likely strong private consumption outturn over Q3 as a whole.