Retail Sales – January down 0.4% with downward revisions to Nov. & Dec.

Posted February 13, 2014 - Filed under Release Observations, Retail Sales.

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January’s retail sales were today reported by the Census Department as having fallen by $1.76bn or 0.4% on a seasonally-adjusted basis, compared with the (revised) December figure.

Downward revisions continue with today’s November sales figure now over $2bn less than initially reported.

Total sales showing a peak in November now, although exluding the volatile Vehicle Sales we see a different pattern (below, chart on right.)

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For more numbers and charts based on today’s release, visit the Retail Sales Dataset page.

The chart below shows the distribution of sales growth across different categories for the past three months. As can be seen, the Motor Vehicle & Parts category dominates.

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