WASHINGTON: US retail sales recorded their largest gain in 18 months in March, in the latest sign the economy was emerging from its weather-induced slumber and on track to accelerate in the second quarter.
The Commerce Department said yesterday retail sales increased 1.1 percent last month, the biggest rise since September 2012, as receipts rose in nearly all categories. Retail sales, which account for a third of consumer spending, had risen by a revised 0.7 percent in February.
Economists had forecast retail sales, advancing 0.8 percent last month after a previously reported 0.3 percent gain in February.
Retail sales added to employment data in suggesting the economy found momentum at the end of the first quarter after an unusually cold and snowy winter disrupted economic activity at the end of 2013 and the beginning of this year. Core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, increased 0.8 percent in March. That followed a revised 0.4 percent rise. Core retail sales had previously been reported to have increased 0.3 percent in February.
Retail sales last month were buoyed by a 3.1 percent surge in receipts at automobile and parts dealers. Reuters
