Retail sales bounced back but rose less than expected in March.
Sales rose 0.9% in March and on a "core" basis, which excludes auto and gas sales, sales rose 0.5%.
Expectations were for sales to rise 1.1% in March, a sharp bounce back after month-on-month declines in January and February.
"Core" retail sales, which exclude auto and gas sales, were expected to rise 0.6% in March.
Headline sales rose 1.3% from the prior year, and in the first quarter sales were up 2.2% from the same quarter a year ago.
The big year-on-year increases included home improvement retailers, which saw sales rise 6.3%, and food and drinking places, which saw sales up 7.7% from last year.
Other big changes from last year were at auto dealers, which saw sales up 5.8% in March, and gasoline stations, which saw sales decline 22% from the same month last year.
In a note to clients ahead of the report, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macro noted that the big expected rebound would likely be owing to an uptick in gas prices, which bottomed in January and have crept up a bit since then, as well as a big recovery in auto sales during March.
Here's the table from the Census Bureau that shows the monthly and annual changes in sales.
More to come ...
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