Consumers are spending more this holiday season, which could correlate with the quickly dropping gas prices.
In November, retail sales - excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services - increased 0.6 percent, reported Reuters. This spending increase follows October where the same sales saw a 0.5 percent increase from the month prior.
Some experts suggest that the decrease in gas prices is allowing consumers to have more money to spend on holiday shopping.
"It provides a bit of a boost to fourth-quarter growth estimates," Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at BTIG in New York, said to Reuters. "We expect the lower gasoline price boost to continue into next year's first half and with an improving jobs market, GDP should be well-supported in coming quarters."
Gennadiy Goldberg, a strategist at TD Securities in New York, agrees that the low gas prices are contributing to the high sales retailers are experiencing.
"Consumers are putting the money they save at the pump to work," Goldberg explained to Reuters.
The sales increase the economy saw in November exceeded Wall Street's prediction of a 0.4- percent gain.
With November's employment report showing 321,000 jobs were added and sales continuously increasing, a fairly upbeat picture of the U.S. economy is being painted.
