Retail sales rise more than expected in June

·Head of News

Updated Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 5:32 AM2 min read

In this article:

Retail sales rose 1% in June, more than expected by Wall Street economists.

Economists had forecast sales would rise 0.9% over the prior month in June after a 0.3% jump in May. Sales in May were revised down, however, to show a 0.1% drop in sales.

Following this report, however, Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said this data "isn’t as good as it looks."

"Real consumption appears to have been largely stagnant last month," Hunter said.

By category, retail sales rose the most at gasoline stations amid a surge in the price of gas last month, which topped $5 a barrel nationwide for the first time in mid-June. As of Thursday, the price of gas had declined in the U.S. for 30 straight days.

Excluding gas station sales, retail sales rose 0.7% in June.

Nonstore retailers — which includes online sales — rose 2.2% in June, the strongest gain among all business categories, excluding gas stations.

Of the 13 major categories tracked by the Census Bureau's report only three — building materials, general merchandise, and health & personal care stores — saw declines last month.

"Overall, retail sales remain 18% above their pre-Covid trend, but momentum has slowed significantly from 13.7% y/y in January to 8.4% y/y in June," said Greg Daco, EY-Parthenon Chief Economist. "In inflation-adjusted terms, and retail sales are 9% above their inflation-adjusted trend, but they’re down 0.5% y/y. In other words, while consumers’ retail receipts are higher, they’re getting fewer items for their dollars than last year."