IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
November was a solid month for U.S. retail sales.
Chain-store sales were up 4.9 percent last month compared with November 2013, according to data released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Clothing showed an especially strong increase compared with October, but all sectors were strong last month, said Jesse Tron, spokesman for the New York-based council.
“Sales showed a steady industry-wide performance for the month,” Tron said in a statement. “It’s an encouraging reading for the holiday season, and [it] means we should continue to expect significant improvement over 2013.”
The November numbers were solid despite a weak Black Friday weekend: sales for that four-day period were down 11 percent compared with 2013, a drop of nearly $61 billion in spending, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C.
Sales for December are expected to increase four to 4.5 percent year-over-year, which would top the 3.4 percent increase recorded last December, the council stated.
