April Retail Sales Rise 0.1%; Ex-Autos Drop 0.1%

WASHINGTON — Retail sales ticked up 0.1% to $419 billion in April after falling a revised 0.5% in March, originally reported as a 0.4% dip, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

April sales were stronger than the expectations of economists polled by Thomson Reuters, who expected the figure to slide 0.3%. On a year over year unadjusted basis, retail sales were up 3.7%.

Excluding autos, retail sales were down 0.1% in April after an unrevised 0.4% decline the previous month. That April decline did not surprise the economists, who had estimated a 0.1% decrease.

Excluding both autos and gas, retail sales rose 0.6% in April after remaining unchanged the previous month. Gasoline sales suffered a 4.7% decline, the largest dip since a 12.9% drop between November and December 2008.

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