US March Retail Sales Up 0.7% Month-on-Month... Exceeding Expectations

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 15th (local time) that March retail sales in the United States increased by 0.7% from the previous month, reaching $709.6 billion.

This figure significantly exceeded the Dow Jones consensus forecast of a 0.3% increase from the previous month.

The monthly retail sales index is a preliminary statistic that mainly tracks sales performance of goods within total consumption. It is considered an indicator to gauge changes in consumption, a core component of the U.S. economy.

A supermarket in the United States
Photo by Yonhap News