According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), US retail sales plummeted 0.7 percent in February 2019 from January but up 2.7 percent unadjusted y-o-y.
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Clothing and clothing accessory stores were down 0.5 percent y-o-y and down 0.4 per cent month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
“The weaker-than-expected February retail sales numbers reflect colder weather and increased precipitation that kept shoppers home but were also skewed downward because of the government’s upward revision in January’s results,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz.
The after effects of the unpredictable stock market, the Government shutdown and slower tax refunds this year played a role in the sluggishness.
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Furthermore, NRF is forecasting that retail sales during 2019 will increase between 3.8 percent and 4.4 percent to more than US $ 3.8 trillion.