U.S. retail sales in July increased beyond expectations, showing strong performance.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 15th (local time) that retail sales in the U.S. for July reached $709.7 billion, marking a 1.0% increase compared to the previous month.
This figure exceeded the Dow Jones survey experts' forecast of a 0.3% increase from the previous month. Compared to the same period last year, it rose by 2.7%.
The earlier retail sales figure for June was revised downward from flat month-over-month to a 0.2% decrease. The monthly retail sales indicator is a preliminary statistic mainly aggregating sales performance of goods within total consumption, and is considered a key indicator to gauge changes in consumption, which is the backbone of the U.S. economy.
Retail sales surpassing market expectations suggest that despite concerns about economic slowdown, U.S. consumer spending still maintains solid resilience. Wall Street has forecasted a slowdown in private consumption due to prolonged high interest rates, a deceleration in wage growth, and depletion of household excess savings.
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