Retail sales increase in July, government report says

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday reported that retail sales reached nearly $710 million in July. That’s a 1 percent increase from June, and a nearly 3 percent increase from last July, the bureau said, citing a margin of error of plus-or-minus 0.5 percent. Researchers adjusted the sales numbers to accommodate seasonal variations and other differences, but didn’t factor price changes into the data, the bureau explained. Since May, sales have been up more than 2 percent compared to the same time last year, the bureau reported.

How does the government get these numbers? The Census Bureau obtains its numbers by sending questionnaires to almost 5,000 retail firms in the United States, the report said. It then extrapolates those 5,000 firms’ answers to the more than 3 million retail firms across the country. The bureau acknowledged its report was prone to both sampling errors and nonsampling errors such as improper data processing.

What does this data mean? Americans spent more this summer even as the economy showed signs of slowing under the pressure of higher interest rates. The Federal Reserve has kept its key interest rates at 5.25-5.5 percent for over a year in a bid to push inflation back down to the central bank’s goal offo 2 percent. Inflation currently sits at around 2.5 percent, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at the end of last month.

Dig deeper: Read David L. Bahnsen’s column in WORLD Opinions analyzing the shortfalls of Kamala Harris’ ideas for the U.S. economy.