USA: Retail Sales Rise Further in August; Import Prices Decline in August. Headline retail sales increased by more than expected in August. Core retail sales increased by 0.3%, in line with consensus expectations, but revisions to prior months were somewhat negative. Import prices declined in August, in line with consensus expectations, and non-petroleum import prices were flat for the second consecutive month. Today’s import price data had a modest downward impact on our August core PCE estimates, and we lowered our month-over month and year-over-year forecasts by 0.01pp to +0.14% and 0.02pp to +1.70%, respectively. Today’s retail sales report suggested upside risk to our GDP tracking estimates, which we will finalize after the mid-morning data.
Research from GS