Sales have fallen 1.1% since October last month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. According to a survey of analysts compiled by Refinitive, sales were expected to be below 0.3% in the month of November.
“The numbers are much lower than expected,” Gus Foucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, said in an email. “At the end of 2020, the economy looks softer.”
Sales at clothing stores, restaurants, electronics stores and gas stations declined while spending in grocery stores and ret online retailers.
Overall, retail sales are up 1.1% from last year. Expenditure on ret online retailers has increased by 29.2% over the same period last year.
Retail aid was aided by federal relief programs during the epidemic, but it has been scrapped.
The weekly unemployment insurance of supplemental 600, which was part of the government’s first stimulus bill, was completed in late July. Since then, Congress has been unable to agree on other incentives for unemployment benefits.
“Without stimulus, retail sales are likely to decline and millions of Americans will lose the benefits of unemployment the day after Christmas,” Robert Frick, a corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a note to consumers on Wednesday.
This year there is a wide range of holiday forecasts, showing the uncertainty surrounding the epidemic. Real estate company CBRE projects that holiday sales will be less than 2% this year from 2019. Wells Fargo economists, meanwhile, predict a 9% increase in their spending on relocation from places like travel, such as toys, electronics and other gifts.
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