Retail Sales -16.4%

The retail sales report is out and it’s a bad one:

Consumer spending tumbled a record 16.4% in April as the backbone of the U.S. economy retrenched amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a government report Friday.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected the advanced retail sales number to fall 12.3% after March’s reported 8.3% dive already had set a record for data going back to 1992. The March numbers were revised to be not as bad as the 8.7% initially reported.

Some 68% of the nation’s $21.5 trillion economy comes from personal consumption expenditures, which tumbled 7.6% in the first quarter just as social distancing measures aimed at containing the coronavirus began to take effect.

Also, the industrial production report had a decline for April of 11.2%. Economists had been expecting a fall of 11.1%.

Oddly, the consumer confidence report showed an increase.

Posted by on May 15th, 2020 at 8:36 am


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