On Thursday, the US Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.3% last month, after rising 0.4% in April. Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to fall 0.1%.
Excluding autos, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales rose 0.2% last month. April data has been revised to show core retail sales rose 0.6% instead of 0.7% as previously reported.
Although inflation and rising interest rates may cause consumers to become more selective and sensitive in their purchases, spending has remained resilient, thanks to strong wage increases resulting from a tight labor market. In addition, some families still accumulated savings during the Corona epidemic.
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged, for the first time since March 2022, when the US central bank launched its fastest monetary tightening campaign in more than 40 years.
But the Fed, which raised interest rates by 500 basis points in the last tightening cycle, still expects two rate hikes before the end of this year.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters that the labor market has surprised many with its “extraordinary resilience”, adding that it is “really the engine and seems to be the engine of the economy “.
In a related context, the US economy grew at a rate of 1.3% on an annual basis during the last quarter. The Atlanta Fed currently estimates that GDP grew at a rate of 2.2% in the second quarter.
Unemployment claims
On the other hand, a separate report from the Ministry of Labor confirmed the resilience of the labor market, as it showed the stability of applications for obtaining state unemployment benefits for the first time, unchanged at a number seasonally adjusted 262,000 for the week. ending June tenth.
Economists polled by Reuters expected 249,000 claims to be filed in the most recent week.
Although the unemployment rate hit a seven-month high of 3.7% in May, it remains very low based on historical data.
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