by Calculated Risk on 6/12/2014 08:45:00 AM

On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.3% from April to May (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 4.3% from May 2013. Sales in April were revised up sharply from a 0.1% increase to a 0.5% increase. From the Census Bureau report:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for May, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $437.6 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous month, and 4.3 percent above May 2013. ... The March 2014 to April 2014 percent change was revised from +0.1 percent to +0.5 percent.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline).


Retail sales ex-autos were up 0.1%. 

The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993.

Retail sales ex-gasoline increased by 4.6% on a YoY basis (4.3% for all retail sales).

The increase in May was well below consensus expectations of a 0.6% increase - however sales in April were revised up sharply (sales in May were up 0.7% from the initial April release level).