By Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK (AA) – Retail sales during the Christmas holiday season are expected to increase 3.6 percent from last year to $655.8 billion, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said Tuesday.
The 2016 forecast is higher than the 10-year seasonal average of 2.5 percent and above the seven-year average of 3.4 percent since economic recovery began in 2009, according to the NRF.
The world's largest retail trade association also anticipated non-store sales in the U.S. to increase between 7 and 10 percent to as much as $117 billion from Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday of November, through Christmas.
"All of the fundamentals are in a good place, giving strength to consumers and leading us to believe that this will be a very positive holiday season," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
"Our forecast reflects the very realistic steady momentum of the economy and industry expectations” and the group is “optimistic that the pace of economic activity will pick up in the near term," he added.
Holiday sales in 2015 increased 3 percent from 2014, according to the NRF.
Chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said in the statement that American consumers have seen income gains throughout 2016 and that is expected to pave the way for more spending throughout the holiday season.
The NRF also anticipates U.S. retailers to hire between 640,000 and 690,000 seasonal workers for the season. That number was 675,300 during same period last year.