Retail sales have posted increases for the past five months in a row according to statistics released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
Overall retail purchases climbed by 0.5% from September to October, with a good showing in car sales. But even not including auto purchases sales increased the most since the month of March.
According to the report, consumers bought trucks, electronics and building supplies in larger amounts than in previous months. The good news is encouraging, bringing optimism about the coming quarter which is an important period for retail results. The report, taken together with recent news that wholesale prices have reached a plateau, and that US shoppers are spending a larger percentage of their money at Wal-Mart, is a bright light in what has been seen as a long, dragged out economic recovery.
“The consumer has to come through this holiday season if we are going to get back to more decent growth rates, and the early readings are those households have hit the stores quite strongly,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.
The comeback in consumer spending is seen as the main fuel firing the growth in the economy, which grew by the annual rate of 2.5% in the third quarter of the year, from July through September. That was the best quarterly growth rate in a year.