by Calculated Risk on 4/13/2016 08:42:00 AM

On a monthly basis, retail sales were down 0.3% from February to March (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 1.7% from March 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 March, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $446.9 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent from the previous month, and 1.7 percent above March 2015. ... The January 2016 to February 2016 percent change was revised from down 0.1 percent to virtually unchanged.

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 down 0.4%.

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 3.4% on a YoY basis.

The decrease in March was below expectations for the month, however retail sales for January and February were revised up.