Retail sales fell 1% in March in the United States, due in particular to falling gasoline prices, but this also shows that consumption is slowing, due to the increase in interest rates aimed at curbing the high inflation.
Total spending amounted to $691.7 billion in March, according to data released Friday by the US Commerce Department.
Analysts were anticipating a weaker decline of just 0.4%, according to the Briefing.com consensus.
The decline in sales for February has also been revised to -0.2% instead of the -0.4% initially announced.
Consumption at rest
However, compared to March 2022, sales increased by 2.9%. But this is due to higher prices, more than consumers fill more their baskets.
In fact, these figures are not adjusted for price increases, which therefore mechanically contributes to increasing the total amount of sales.
In detail, service stations registered the largest drop (-5.5%) in March. Department stores saw their sales fall 3.0%, while those of clothing stores fell 1.7%, and those of dealerships and other sellers of cars and auto parts fell 1.6%.
On the other hand, Internet sales rose by 1.9%.
Inflation in the United States slowed to 5% year-on-year in March, the lowest in almost two years, according to the CPI index published on Wednesday.
Source: BFM TV
