Shoppers kept hitting the stores in September, showing they could continue to boost the economy despite economists’ calls for a slowdown.
U.S. retail sales increased by 0.4% in September, Census Bureau data showed. Consumers again surprised economists with their propensity to spend, as the $714.4 billion in sales was a slightly bigger jump than they expected.
What caught some economists’ attention was a measure of “core” spending that excludes sales at gas stations and auto dealerships. That measure rose 0.7% from the prior month.
“Despite worries about the financial health of the consumer and potential weakening in the labor market, U.S. retailers had a solid month in September,” Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery Grein wrote in a commentary.
The strong results could lead to better-than-expected growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter, economists said.
“The September retail sales report shows the U.S. consumer still has formidable spending power that they continue to deploy in …