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On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department data had unveiled that US retail sales surged more than anticipated last month as US households continued to break off their savings in order to grapple with a nearly 40-year-peak inflation reading. In tandem, a stimulus check of $1,050 as a tax refund in the US state of California appeared to have underpinned sales in October. Aside from that, despite a gloomier consumer confidence outlook, consumers appeared to have purchased a number of big-ticket items including motor vehicles, illustrating that consumer spending had picked up earlier in the fourth quarter which might help support a US economy which has been standing at the doorstep of an impending recession. Nonetheless, other data released on Wednesday had unfurled that import prices declined for a fourth straight month in October, while factory activity rose marginally. However, the solid sales result in October could not derail frets that the US economy could be able to avert a recession as early as by early-2023, however, signs of a softer landing appeared to be lurking over the horizon, suggested analysts.
US retail sales rose more than anticipated
Meanwhile, adding that the latest set of data might discourage the US Fed to sway away from its aggressive rate-hike path, a chief economist at Raymond James in St Petersburg, Florida, Eugenio Aleman said, “This is not what the Fed wants to see, but it comes at a time when inflation numbers are starting to improve.
This will keep the Fed on guard and committed to continue to increase interest rates in order to slow down economic activity”. According to US Commerce Department, US retail sales grew more than 1.3 per cent last month, while over the past twelve months through October, US retail sales jumped as much as 8.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis.