October 15, 2009
Retail sales in the United States fell a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in September, smaller than the fall of 2.1 percent economists had expected.
The figure, released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, was mainly affected by the fall of auto sales since the end of the government's popular "cash for clunkers" program, which lifted auto sales in the past several months.
Car sales plunged 10.4 percent last month but, excluding autos,retail sales rose 0.5 percent. That's better than the 0.2 percent increase analysts expected.
The 1.5 percent drop in retail sales in September followed a 2.2 percent surge in August, which was revised down from an initial estimate of 2.7 percent.
The Commerce Department said retail sales in September were still 5.7 percent below the same month in 2008.
Economists expect the U.S. economy will grow about 3 percent in the third quarter this year. However, they worry that the recovery might not be sustained if consumers remain reluctant to spend.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity, is the broad measure of U.S. economic activity.