IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
August is looking like a strong retail month.
National retail sales rose 3.8 percent year-over-year for the week that ended Saturday, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index.
Sales have increased all three weeks this month compared with 2013, according to the index, which was released Tuesday.
Back-to-school sales helped fuel the increase, with electronics, discount stores and clothing posting especially strong gains, said Michael Niemira, research consultant with the council.
Week-over-week the news wasn’t so good: sales last week were down 1.3 percent compared with the week that ended Aug. 9, the index stated.
Still, the council is predicting sales to be up four to five percent this month compared with last August, which would be a significant improvement compared with the 3.6 percent jump recorded one year ago.
