Americans pumped the brakes on spending in January after the pivotal holiday season as they continued to confront high interest rates and steeper prices for everyday goods.
Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods including cars, food and gasoline, tumbled 0.8% in January, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That is lower than both the 0.1% decline projected by Refinitiv economists and the revised 0.4% increase recorded in December.
It marks the worst month for retail sales since March 2023.
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