Real retail sales continue flat in January; production sector still in recession
Retail sales increased nominally by +0.3% in January, while December was revised downward by -0.1%, for a net gain of +0.2%. Since consumer inflation increased by +0.4% during those two months, real retail sales were unchanged. On a per capita basis, they declined less than -0.1%.
This means that neither real retail sales or real retail sales per capita have made new highs since last August. The former is off -0.4% and the latter -0.6%. Here are both measures, normed to 100 as