Retail sales fall in December

Americans overlooked shortages, spiking prices and uncertainty over the omicron variant to break spending records during the critical holiday shopping season. But figures released Friday show that after spending robustly early in the holiday season, consumers sharply slowed their purchases from November to December.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said that sales surged by a record 14.1% from November and December 2020 to the same months in 2021. Those figures blew away the federation’s projections for growth of between 8.5% to 10.5%, and more than tripled the average gain over the past five years of 4.4%.

Yet data issued by the Commerce Department showed that by the end of December, spending had trailed off sharply enough to catch economists off guard and raise doubts about the sustainability of retail sales in the face of omicron, inflation, and persistent shortages of labor and supplies. Retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.9% from November to December.

Spending fell broadly across numerous sectors: Department store sales fell 7%, restaurant 0.8% and online purchases 8.7% compared with November.

Many economists expect the caution that consumers displayed last month to carry over into this year and potentially slow the economy. Still, with average hourly pay rising, analysts say spending and growth could pick up, at least modestly, once omicron fades.

Commerce Department figure show retail sales jumped 1.8% in October, and on Friday it reported that year-overyear numbers show that retail sales surged 16.9% last month compared with December 2020.