December 15, 2022
Americans started to back off their spending in November.
This was the biggest drop in retail sales in nearly a year.
According to new retail sales numbers from the US Census Bureau, sales at us retail stores, online and at restaurants fell by 0.6% between October and November.
Shoppers spent less on things like electronics, clothing, sporting and sporting goods both online and in stores. They spent more of everyday things like food and at health-care stores but also on restaurants and meals.
Now this report is not adjusted for inflation but it’s indicating — it’s likely the higher prices we’ve been seeing are turning shoppers away.
Here’s the deal – this is exactly what the Federal Reserve wants to see. People pulling back on their spending but not stopping entirely. Now look, in November we still spent about $690 billion on stuff but that was about $4 billion less than October.
Read the November Retail Sales report here.
