Consumers sharply reduced their consumption in January, pointing to the potential weakening of economic growth before us, according to a report of the trade department on Friday.
Retail He slid to 0.9% for the month with a sublime revised 0.7% of December winnings, even worse than an estimate of Dow Jones for a drop of 0.2%. Total sales are adapted to seasonality, but not an inflation in a month in which prices have increased by 0.5%.
With the exception of cars, prices have fallen 0.4%, they are also well of consensitive forecasts by 0.3% increase. The “control” measure that allocates several irrelevant categories and directly into calculating the gross domestic product has dropped 0.8% after an increase in increase of 0.8%.
Since consumer consumption accounts for about two-thirds of all economic activities in the US, sales numbers indicate a potential weakening of growth in the first trimester.
Receipts in sports goods, music and books in the month fell 4.6%, while the Internet outlets reported a drop of 1.9%and motor vehicles and consumption of parts fell 2.8%. Bline cells, along with food and drink institutions, recorded 0.9% increase.
Futures on the stock market Held in a slight negative territory after release, while the treasury lost the ground. Merchants raised bets that federal reserves could re -reduce interest rates as soon as possible in June.
“The drop was dramatic, but several mitigating factors show that there is no reason for alarm. Some of them may switch to bad weather, and some to sell the car -the sales in January after an unusual increase in December because of the incentives for fat salesman,” he said, “he said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union. “Particularly given that December is strongly revised, a valid average consumer consumer consumption average remains solid.”
Inflation remains in front of the Fed goal of 2%. AND Consumer prices index He published a 0.5% gain in January and showed a 3% annual inflation rate. However, Manufacturer’s price indexProxy for wholesale prices, showed some softening in key pipeline entries.
In other economic news on Friday, a bureau for the statistics of work reported that Imports of prices He accelerated 0.3% in January, in accordance with expectations for the biggest one -month move since April 2024. On an annual basis, import prices increased by 1.9%.
Fuel prices increased by 3.2% of the month, and also the highest gain since April 2024. Food, food and drink costs increased by 0.2% after 3% increase in December.
Export prices have also grown, increasing by 1.3%.
