(FOX BUSINESS) – Americans pulled back on spending at retail stores in March as demand cooled sharply in the face of banking turmoil, persistent inflation and high interest rates.
Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods, including cars, food and gasoline, tumbled 1% in March, the Commerce Department said Friday. That is well below the 0.4% decline projected by Refinitiv economists and a marked drop from February, when sales fell 0.2%. It is the biggest decline since December.
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Excluding the more volatile measurements of gasoline and autos, sales fell 0.3% last month. The figures are not adjusted for inflation.
