Retail and food service sales decreased 0.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted $401.52 billion, the Commerce Department reported Monday. That is the first time since the depths of the recession in 2008 that retail sales have fallen three months in a row.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.2% rise.
Retail sales are an important component of consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of the economy. Early this year, households helped the recovery by buying cars, electronics, building supplies and other goods.
But consumers are losing confidence as unemployment remains high, house prices low and the outlook unpredictable. That is likely to hold back the recovery heading into the November elections.
“The weaker consumer spending will…keep a lid on headline GDP growth in the second half of the year,” Wells Fargo senior economist Eugenio Aleman said in a research note.
Policy makers at the Federal Reserve have worried that demand might not be strong enough to propel faster growth and job creation. And so far, data from the second quarter of the year show that the recovery is slowing--for example, job growth has been weak and wages stagnant.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/201...il-sales-fall-for-3rd-straight-month-in-june/
“The private sector is doing fine” – Barack Obama, June 8, 2012.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.2% rise.
Retail sales are an important component of consumer spending, which makes up about two-thirds of the economy. Early this year, households helped the recovery by buying cars, electronics, building supplies and other goods.
But consumers are losing confidence as unemployment remains high, house prices low and the outlook unpredictable. That is likely to hold back the recovery heading into the November elections.
“The weaker consumer spending will…keep a lid on headline GDP growth in the second half of the year,” Wells Fargo senior economist Eugenio Aleman said in a research note.
Policy makers at the Federal Reserve have worried that demand might not be strong enough to propel faster growth and job creation. And so far, data from the second quarter of the year show that the recovery is slowing--for example, job growth has been weak and wages stagnant.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/201...il-sales-fall-for-3rd-straight-month-in-june/
“The private sector is doing fine” – Barack Obama, June 8, 2012.
