US: Retail sales contract 0.2% in February vs +0.3% expected

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

The data published by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday showed that retail sales declined by 0.2% on a monthly basis in February following January's 0.7% growth and fell short of the market expectation for an increase of 0.3%. With the initial reaction, the US Dollar Index edged lower and last was down 0.16% on a daily basis at 97.06.

Key takeaways from the press release

Total sales for the December 2018 through February 2019 period were up 2.2 percent from the same period a year ago.
The December 2018 to January 2019 percent change was revised from up 0.2 percent to up 0.7 percent.
Nonstore retailers were up 10.0 percent from February 2018, while health and personal care stores were up 5.9 percent from last year.

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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