With gasoline prices showing a substantial increase, the Commerce Department released a report on Friday showing a significant jump in retail sales in the U.S. in the month of September.
The Commerce Department said retail sales surged up by 1.6 percent in September after edging down by a revised 0.1 percent in August.
Economists had expected retail sales to spike by 1.7 percent compared to the 0.2 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.
Higher gas prices contributed to the jump in retail sales, as sales by gasoline stations soared by 5.8 percent during the month.
The report also showed a notable rebound in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, which surged up by 3.6 percent in September after tumbling by 2.1 percent.
Excluding the jump in auto sales, retail sales still shot up by 1.0 percent in September after climbing by 0.5 percent in August. Ex-auto sales had been expected to rise by 0.3 percent.
Closely watched core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, rose by 0.4 percent.
With the monthly increase, the Commerce Department said total retail sales in September were up by 4.4 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.