US retail sales rise a bit less quickly than expected in December

Consumer spend in the US slowed a tad at the tail-end of 2024, but sufficed for economists to lift their fourth quarter growth forecasts.

According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms retail sales volumes expanded at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% in December to reach $729.2bn (consensus: 0.6%).

The prior month's estimate meanwhile was revised higher by a tenth of a percentage point to reveal a rate of expansion of 0.8%.

Sales of motor vehicles and parts increased by 0.7% on the month and those at furniture and home furnishing stores by 2.3%.

Gasoline station sales jumped by 1.5% on the back of a dearer price of petrol which surged by 4.4%.

Building materials and garden equipment sales however declined by 2.0%.

Sales at non-store retailers were up by 0.2% on the month following a 1.7% rise in November.

So-called 'control group' sales grew by a larger-than-expected 0.7%.

On the back of Thursday's data, Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics estimated that real consumption expanded at a monthly clip of 0.4%.

In turn, the economist lifted his projection for the rate of increase in fourth quarter GDP to an annualised clip of 2.9%, against 2.7% beforehand.