US retail sales rise sharply in January

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) – US retail sales rose sharply in January, coming way above market expectations, according to figures released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday.

Retail sales came in at $649.8 billion, increasing 3.8% from the previous month’s revised figure of $626.3 billion.

The market expectation for January was a 2% gain, while the decline in December 2021 was revised further down to a 2.5% decrease, from a contraction of 1.9%.

"Gasoline stations were up 33.4% from January 2021, while food services and drinking places were up 27% from last year," the Census Bureau said in a statement.

The sharp gain in retail sales suggests that consumer demand is still high in the US, which causes inflation.

While US consumer prices rose 7.5% year-on-year in January, marking the largest 12-month increase since February 1982, annual producer prices stood at 9.7%.