US retail sales rose a solid 0.8 per cent last month
WASHINGTON — U.S. retail sales rose at a healthy pace in October, though the gains were likely boosted by one-time factors such as hurricane recovery spending and higher gas prices.
Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent last month, following two months of slight declines, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Excluding gasoline sales, which were inflated by higher prices, sales climbed a still-solid 0.5 per cent.
The figures suggest that consumers are spending at a modest pace, fueled by steady job gains and mild wage increases. Americans lifted their spending over the summer and fall at the fastest six-month pace in four years. Yet business spending on machinery, computers and buildings barely increased in the July-September quarter, leaving consumers shouldering more of the burden of maintaining growth.
Some of October’s spending gain was likely boosted by the impact of Hurricane Florence in September and Hurricane Michael last month. The government said it could not measure the precise impact of the two storms. But auto sales rose 1.1 per cent in October, the most since March, as many Americans may have replaced cars destroyed by the hurricanes.