US: Retail Sales decline by 1.1% in December, PPI falls to 6.2%

Retail Sales in the United States declined by 1.1% on a monthly basis in December. This follows November’s fall of 0.6% and misses consensus estimates for a 0.8% fall.

Excluding autos, core retail sales also contracted by 1.1% during the reported month as compared to a 0.4% fall anticipated and a modest 0.2% drop in November, pointing to a slowdown in consumer demand.

data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand in the US declined to 6.2% on a yearly basis in December from the previous month’s downwardly revised reading of 7.3%. This reading missed consensus estimates for a fall to 6.8%. The annual Core PPI decelerated to 5.5% during the reported month from the previous month’s reading of 6.2%, again missing market expectations. On a monthly basis, the Core PPI came in at 0.1%, down from 0.2% in November (revised lower from 0.4% reported previously).