After a dreary holiday shopping season and months of lagging sales, it appears the U.S. retail industry is finally seeing some reprieve: retail sales have increased for the first time in three months.
February retail sales increased 0.3 percent, the first increase since November and following a 0.6 decrease in January, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
"The consumer appears to be back in the game," Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at New York-based TD Securities, told Reuters.
The slump in sales was accredited to consumers affected by the constant snowstorms and sub-zero degree temperatures. Economists originally anticipated only a 0.2 increase in February retail sales, according to Bloomberg. But Americans seem to be ready to spend more than anticipated, giving new life to the economy.
"We'll see a little bit more traction on the consumer side as the weather improves and people get a little bit more willing to leave the house," Ameriprise Financial Inc. Senior Economist Russell Price, told Bloomberg. "There is building pent-up demand across the economy."
Applications for unemployment benefits also declined for the first time in three months, the Labor Department said. Unemployment benefit claims for February were 315,000, down 9,000 from January, providing more evidence of an improving economy, Reuters reported.
"We see this as further confirmation that the underlying momentum in the economy remains quite favorable, and we look for further upside spending momentum in the coming months," Mulraine told Reuters.
Economists are expecting retail sales to skyrocket in the spring.
"It has been an interesting start to the year with the weather," John Felice, U.S. sales chief for Ford in Michigan, told Bloomberg. "While it's difficult to determine how much of that pent-up [demand] would carry into March, I think it was a solid month in an industry basis and we expect heading into the month of March being a very solid spring market," Felice said.
