by Calculated Risk on 3/15/2016 08:49:00 AM

On a monthly basis, retail sales were down 0.1% from January to February (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 3.1% from February 2015.

From the Census Bureau report:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $447.3 billion, a decrease of 0.1 percent from the previous month, and 3.1 percent above February 2015. ... The December 2015 to January 2016 percent change was revised from up 0.2 percent to down 0.4 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 were up 0.2%.

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 4.8% on a YoY basis.

The decrease in February was at expectations, however retail sales for December were revised down. Even though disappointing (including revisions), sales ex-gasoline are up a solid 4.8% YoY.