IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Chain stores in the United States posted a 4.8 percent year-over-year gain in May, according to data released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers.
That increase was well above the average year-over-year increase of the past three months – 3.7 percent – and well above the three to 3.5 percent increase the council had been predicting for the fifth month of the year.
Some pent-up demand is being released, demand that built earlier this year when a lot of shopping was curtailed by bad weather, said Michael P. Niemira, the council’s chief economist and vice president of research, in a statement.
June sales are expected to be up 3.5 percent compared with June of last year, according to the council.
