Retail sales rose in June, the Commerce Department reported on Friday, an unexpected jump that came as American consumers increased spending on dining out and clothes and gadgets. The 0.6 percent increase in sales last month, which followed a drop in spending in May, highlighted the unevenness of the economic recovery. Even as overall sales rose, sales of cars and car parts and spending at building materials, furniture and sporting goods stores also declined. “Consumers are being discriminatory on what they spend on,” said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. June’s sales were better than economists had forecast, but sales in coming months could be hampered by reactions to the fast spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, rising prices and the end of some government benefits.

Source: New York Times July 16, 2021 13:07 UTC