WASHINGTON: US retail sales rebounded in March from a three-month slump in the strongest gain in a year, boosted by a sharp increase in auto sales, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
Headline retail and food services sales rose 0.9 percent in March from February to $441.4 billion.
Auto sales jumped 2.7 percent, reversing February's steep drop in their best monthly increase since March 2014.
Stripping out auto sales, retail sales rose 0.4 percent in March.
The headline number, a key indicator of the strength of consumer spending and the overall economy, came in close to analysts' expectations of a 1.0 percent gain, while ex-auto sales missed estimates of a 0.7 percent increase.
The March data pulled total sales for the first quarter of 2015 up 2.2 percent from the same period last year.
The decline in February retail sales was revised to 0.5 percent from 0.6 percent. Economists had said unusually severe winter weather was partly to blame for the slump.
"Winter blues banished; more strength to come in spring," said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
Given that falling gasoline prices are putting more cash into consumers products, he said, "we should expect very strong retail sales numbers over the next few months, though as always the Easter holiday can temporarily distort the early spring data."
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