NEW YORK — Retail sales fell 0.8% in January, compared with the pace in December, when they rose an adjusted 0.4%, according to the U.S. Commerce Department report released Thursday.
Excluding sales from car dealers and gas stations, sales fell 0.5%. This decline was larger than the 0.10% drop economists were expecting, and is the lowest monthly figure since March of last year.
Economists expected Americans to reduce their spending late last year, under the weight of credit card debt and the evaporation of their savings with soaring prices for three years.
Buyers slowed their spending in January, stifled by high prices that rose even further that same month. The fact contradicts what the Federal Reserve reports about the considerable reduction in inflation.
Sales at clothing and accessories stores fell 0.2%. Those from construction materials suppliers and suppliers fell 4.1%, reflecting a still weak housing market. General merchandise store sales were unchanged. Online sales fell 0.8%. Those of restaurants increased 0.7%
Core consumer inflation in the United States rose to 3.9% in 12 months, but economists affirm that this figure does not correspond to the reality suffered by the majority of Americans.
The figure is below the inflation peak of 9.1% in mid-2022, but well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, at a time when public frustration with inflation – after three years of financial cornering – is a decisive issue in the electoral campaign in the United States, in which former President Donald Trump seeks the Presidency again amid the chaos created by the Biden administration and its minimal support.
Source: With information from AP.
