IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Retail sales nationwide continued to grow in May, despite consumers apparently slowing their stockpiling of goods in anticipation of tariffs, according to the National Retail Federation.
Sales last month were up 0.49 percent month-over-month and 4.4 percent year-over-year, compared with increases of 0.72 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, in April, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association reported.
The month-over-month numbers are seasonally adjusted, the year-over-year numbers are not. Neither takes into account gasoline or automobile sales.
“The data for May indicates that the pull-forward in consumer demand ahead of tariffs is likely dissipating,” said Matthew Shay, the federation’s president and chief executive officer, in the statement “While momentum remains, the nature of consumer spending is shifting as economic uncertainty increases.
Core retail sales, which don’t count restaurants but include gasoline and automobile sales, in May were up 0.23 percent month-over-month and 4.2 percent year-over-year. That compared with increases of 0.9 percent month-over-month and 7.11 percent year-over-year in April, the federation reported.
