US Economic Data Keep Coming In Stronger and Defying Forecasts
- Increase in household purchases spans variety of categories
- Gauge of industrial production climbs to highest since 2018
So-called control group sales — which are used to calculate spending on merchandise in the gross domestic product report — rose a better-than-expected 0.6%.
Photographer: Jamie Kelter Davis/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
US retail sales exceeded all forecasts and industrial production strengthened last month, fresh evidence of a resilient American consumer whose spending is helping stabilize manufacturing.
Sales, unadjusted for inflation, increased 0.7% after upwardly revised advances in the prior two months, according to the Commerce Department. So-called control group sales — which are used to calculate spending on merchandise in the gross domestic product report — rose a better-than-expected 0.6%.