Retail Monitor shows strong December results
Furniture and home furnishings stores were up 0.84% month-over-month seasonally adjusted and up 5.34% year-over-year unadjusted.
WASHINGTON – Retail sales jumped in the last month of 2024, boosted by two busy holiday shopping days during Thanksgiving weekend that happened to fall in December rather than November last year.
The National Retail Federation released its CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, showing that total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 1.74% seasonally adjusted month-over-month and up 7.24% unadjusted year-over-year in December.
“Growth rebounded strongly in December from a misleadingly weaker November as the result of the final two days of the busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend being included in December’s data,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said, adding, “Households are in good financial shape amid low unemployment, growing income and continued deceleration of inflation for goods.”
The increases were a marked contrast to the November report of an increase 0.15% month-over-month and 2.35% year-over-year.
The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales, which also excludes restaurants, was up 2.19% month-over-month in December and up 8.41% year-over-year. That compared with a decrease of 0.19% month-over-month and an increase of 1.43% year-over-year in the previous month.
The results follow NRF’s forecasts that 2024 retail sales for the full year and 2024 holiday retail sales during November and December – excluding autos, gas and restaurants – would both increase between 2.5% and 3.5% over the previous year. The forecasts are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and final results will be known when the Census Bureau releases December’s results on Thursday.
December sales were up in all but one of nine categories on a monthly basis. With online and other non-store sales (up 4.49% month-over-month seasonally adjusted and up 33.05% year-over-year unadjusted) at the top of the list, furniture and home furnishings stores were up 0.84% month-over-month seasonally adjusted and up 5.34% year-over-year unadjusted.
Only building and garden supply stores were down 0.09% month-over-month seasonally adjusted, although the category was still up 0.85% year-over-year unadjusted.
NRF provides data on retail sales each month using actual, anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions.
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