by Calculated Risk on 6/11/2015 08:39:00 AM

On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 1.2% from April to May (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 2.7% from May 2014.

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 $444.9 billion, an increase of 1.2 percent from the previous month, and 2.7 percent above May 2014. ... The March 2015 to April 2015 percent change was revised from virtually unchanged to +0.2 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-gasoline increased 1.0%.

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

Retail and Food service sales ex-gasoline increased by 5.2% on a YoY basis (2.7% for all retail sales).

The increase in May was close to the consensus expectations of a 1.3% increase, and sales in March and April were revised up. A solid report.