Customers push shopping carts at a supermarket on April 12, 2022 in San Mateo County, California.
Luu Quang Nguyen | China News Service | beautiful pictures
Consumers continued to spend in March even as inflation rose to its highest level since late 1981, according to government data released on Thursday.
Retail sales rose 0.5% month-over-month, slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 0.6% and decelerating from a revised 0.8% gain in February.
The move comes amid a 1.1% increase in inflation for the month as measured by the consumer price index.
Retail sales data are not adjusted for inflation. As a result, the biggest revenue increase in the game month was at gas stations, with an 8.9% increase driven by an 18.3% increase in gas prices for the period. The sector has seen a 37% sales boom in the past year.
In contrast, online sales fell sharply, down 6.4% on the month. General merchandise stores rose 5.4%, sporting goods and electronics stores both increased 3.3%, bars and sales in food and beverage stores along with bars and restaurants increased by 1%.
Overall retail sales rose 6.9% from a year ago, a period when CPI inflation rose 8.5%, the highest level since December 1981.
Among other economic data, Initial unemployment claims rose to 185,000 for the week ended April 9, up 18,000 from the previous week and above estimates of 172,000. Resume requests, which run one week after the number of headlines, dropped by 48,000 to 1.475 million.
In addition, inflation continues to affect imports, with price increased 2.6%, the biggest monthly increase since April 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This figure is even higher than the estimate of 2.2%.
For 12 months, import prices increased by 12.5%, the largest increase since September 2011.
