US retail sales beat expectations in November on holiday boost

Washington: Retail sales in the United States picked up in November, delayed government data showed Wednesday, reflecting a better performance than expected as consumers headed into the holiday shopping season last year.

But economists caution that the underlying picture for consumption could be mixed.

Overall sales rose by 0.6 percent in November to $735.9 billion on a month-on-month basis, Department of Commerce data showed.


This marked a rebound from the revised 0.1 percent decline in October and was better than the 0.4 percent growth that analysts expected.

"The strong gain in retail sales in November supports our forecast that this holiday season was a solid one for retailers, with the volume of holiday retail sales rising by the strongest since 2021," said Michael Pearce, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.

"However, that rests on narrow foundations as spending is driven by high-income households spending part of their recent wealth gains," he warned in a note.

The latest retail figures were released on a delayed schedule due to a lengthy government shutdown between October and mid-November, however.

Looking ahead, all eyes are on the strength of US consumers as President Donald Trump's trade policies add to cost hikes while the labor market cools.

On a year-on-year basis, retail sales were 3.3 percent higher in November, the report said.

Besides a pick-up in consumption as the holidays approached, the uptick was also partially due to sales at auto dealers and gasoline stations.

Sales at restaurants and bars jumped 0.6 percent in November, after a 0.1 percent dip in October.

But spending at grocery stores edged up just 0.1 percent, while those at furniture stores slipped 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, sales at general merchandise stores were flat, with those at department stores falling 2.9 percent.

A separate report released Wednesday showed that producer prices rose by 0.2 percent in November, driven by a jump in goods costs.

This was largely due to energy costs over the month, the Labor Department said.