In Depth Analysis: CalculatedRisk Newsletter on Real Estate (Ad Free) Read it here.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Real Retail Sales

by Calculated Risk on 3/13/2008 11:11:00 AM

This graph shows the year-over-year change in nominal and real (inflation adjusted) retail sales since 1993.

Year-over-year change in Retail Sales Click on graph for larger image.

To calculate the real change, the monthly PCE price index from the BEA was used (February PCE prices estimated as the same increase as January).

Although the Census Bureau reported that nominal retail sales increased 2.4% year-over-year, real retail sales declined over 1% (on a YoY basis). This is a recessionary level for retail sales.