SpendingPulse: Total U.S. Retail Sales for January Up 5.5% Year-over-Year
Strongest Performance since April 2010
MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and service sales, today provided summary results for January 2011. Excluding auto sales, total retail sales grew by 5.5% year-over-year, on par with December’s growth rate, and slightly higher than November’s. Strong sales also led to a rebound in shorter-term growth -- on a month-to-month seasonally adjusted basis, January sales were up by 1.8%, reversing the slowdown that month-to-month sales had posted in December. Excluding both auto sales and gasoline, on a seasonally unadjusted basis, year-over-year sales in January grew by 4.6%, slightly slower than November and December, 2010, but nevertheless a healthy rate of growth by most standards.
Kamalesh Rao, Director of Economic Research for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, noted: “Overall, retail spending managed to maintain its momentum following an already-strong holiday season. Despite some very challenging weather conditions in many parts of the country, and unemployment numbers that have not yet improved significantly, during the last two months we saw the strongest growth rate for total U.S. retail sales ex-autos since April 2010. Further, the year-to-year growth for 3-month totals stood at 4.9% in January, the highest growth rate since August 2007.”
Sectors showing positive results in January included eCommerce, Luxury, Apparel and Travel, both in the Airlines and Lodging categories. Weaker segments included Jewelry, Furniture and Automotive Repair & Maintenance.
Spending grew in every part of the country, with the best unadjusted year-over-results in the South Central and Southeast regions respectively posting 9.7% and 7.7% growth.
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U.S. Retail Sales, Unadjusted Year/Year %Change |
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| U.S. Retail Sales | January 2011 | December 2010 | ||
| Total Retail Ex Auto | +5.5% | +5.5% | ||
| Total Ex Auto Ex Gas | +4.6% | +4.9% | ||
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U.S. Retail Sales, Seasonally Adjusted for January |
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| U.S. Retail Sales |
% Change Over |
% Change Over |
||
|
Prior Month |
Prior Year |
|||
| Total Retail Ex Auto | +1.8% | +5.6% | ||
| Total Ex Auto Ex Gas | +1.2% | +4.2% | ||
About MasterCard Advisors
MasterCard Advisors provides payments consulting, information, analytics, and customized services to financial institutions and their merchant partners worldwide. Addressing complex challenges in strategy, marketing, risk, and operations, MasterCard Advisors helps clients maximize the value of their payments businesses. As the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide, MasterCard Advisors is uniquely qualified to provide clients with insights and solutions that drive tangible impact and financial gain. For more information, go to www.mastercardadvisors.com.
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January 2011 Total U.S. Retail Sales Report
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