US Retail Sales Up 9.8% In March After Stimulus Checks Payout - Commerce Dept.

US retail sales jumped 9.8 percent in March, well above forecasts, as consumers began spending their $1,400 checks sent out by the Biden administration as relief for the coronavirus pandemic, Commerce Department data showed on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2021) US retail sales jumped 9.8 percent in March, well above forecasts, as consumers began spending their $1,400 checks sent out by the Biden administration as relief for the coronavirus pandemic, Commerce Department data showed on Thursday.

"Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March 2021, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $619.1 billion, an increase of 9.8 percent from the previous month," said a statement from the Bureau of Census, a unit within the Commerce Department.

Economists surveyed by US media had expected a growth of just 5.8 percent in March retail sales.

A breakdown of last month's spending, provided by the Commerce Department, showed that consumers splurged most on sporting goods and hobbies followed by clothing, motor vehicle parts, building materials, gasoline for travel and eating out.

"The headline is extremely strong but some of that was baked in after a jump in new car sales in the month that should have already been priced in," economist Adam Button said in a post on ForexLive.

"At the end of the day though, we have retail sales up almost 10%. Looking through the categories, there's nothing remotely negative."

February's retail sales contracted 3 percent, sliding after a 5.3 percent climb in January helped by $600 stimulus checks sent out by the former Trump administration in December under another COVID-19 relief package then.

There's no certainty that sales wouldn't slip again in April, once the March impact from the $1,400 checks sent out early last month subsides.

Retail sales, a cornerstone of the consumer-dominated US economy, have been mostly sluggish since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March last year, crushing the jobs market.

The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April 2020, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus. At least 8.5 million of those jobs have not returned, data shows.