Retail sales increase in March
Last week, the released its showing a significant increase of 1.6% from February and an 7.6% increase from March 2009 on an aggregate of all items including food, fuel and healthcare services.
Discretionary retail sales including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales increased 1.19% compared to March 2009, the first nominal increase in 28 consecutive months.
Adjusting for inflation, 鈥渞eal鈥� discretionary retail sales declined 1.18% since March 2009.
On a 鈥渘ominal鈥� basis, there had appeared to be 鈥渞ough correlation鈥� between strong home value appreciation and strong retail spending preceding the housing bust and an even stronger correlation when home values started to decline.
There was, at the very least, a coincidental change to home values and consumer spending during the boom and then the bust, but as home values have continued to decline, retail spending has remained low but has not continued to consistently contract.
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