Commerce Department report drop in retail sales
September 14, 2005
The US Commerce Department reported on Wednesday that retail sales in the United States dropped a much larger than expected 2.1 percent in August.
The report said that while the department could not give a numerical value to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the monthly data, but it did say that the impact would not have been high because the area affected accounts for only around 1 percent of nationwide sales and because it would have only had an impact on the last few days of the month.
Analysts had only forecast a drop in sales of 1.2 percent for the month, but a decline of 12 percent in sales of motor vehicles and parts took its toll on the total figures. Outside the automobile sector, retail sales actually rose by 1.0 percent, when only an 0.5 percent gain was expected.
Most of that rise, however, was due to higher gasoline prices, which spiked at the end of the month as gas station sales gained 4.4 percent on the month. When both motor vehicle and gasoline sales are excluded, retail sales gained just 0.5 percent. Furniture sales were up by 0.9 percent on the month, while building materials and garden equipment gained 0.5 percent.