by Calculated Risk on 12/13/2006 09:30:00 AM

The November advanced monthly retail sales from the Census Bureau show an increase in sales.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $368.9 billion, an increase of 1.0 percent the previous month and up 5.6 percent from November 2005. Total sales for the September through November 2006 period were up 5.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The September to October 2006 percent change was revised from -0.4 percent to -0.1 percent.

The following graph shows real monthly retail sales with and without gasoline stations.

Click on graph for larger image.

Note: Adjusted using Median CPI from Cleveland Fed, Nov estimated. Graph starts at $200 Billion to show changes.

Although real retail sales bounced back in November, sales are still below the level of a few months ago.

The Fed noted yesterday that "recent indicators have been mixed", and that comment could be applied to almost all the data. Just when it looks like the economy is really slowing down, the MBA data (previous post) and the retail sales show some strength.