Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released preliminary estimates of nationwide retail sales in July 2022 and revised estimates for June 2022. (The data include both brick-and-mortar and Internet sales.)
Dollars Spent on Retail Goods Nearly Unchanged. Seasonally adjusted U.S. retail sales remained nearly unchanged (zero percent growth) from June to July. Cumulative twelve-month growth in sales from July 2021 to July 2022 was 10.3 percent.
Inflation-Adjusted Retail Sales Also Nearly Unchanged. Across all goods and services purchased by consumers, U.S. prices were nearly unchanged from June to July. With prices and nominal sales both flat, inflation-adjusted sales also held steady (zero percent growth). From July 2021 to July 2022, prices grew 8.5 percent, somewhat less than the 10.3 percent growth in nominal sales over that twelve-month period.
