News

Retail sales have positive, unexpected September surge

October 18, 2012

Economic reports released this week show more signs of a gradual economic expansion in the U.S., according to an article on costar.com. The Census Bureau reported on Monday that U.S. retail sales for September totaled $412.9 billion, an increase of 1.1 percent compared with August and up 5.4 percent year over year.

The report marked the third straight month of increasing retail sales, and the news sparked a rally on Wall Street, the article reported. 

The Commerce Department also revised retail sales for August up from 0.9 percent to 1.2 percent. The sales appeared to be broad-based, as no single category seemed to dominate the sales.

U.S. retail sales have increased 24.6 percent since early 2009 and the recession. Total sales actually are higher than at their peak before the recession. Retail sales over the three consecutive months suggest consumers did more to drive growth in the July-September period than economists had expected, the article reported.

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