Retail sales jumped significantly in May, showing strong increases both month over month and year over year, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF).
“Consumers have clearly retained their ability to spend and are driving solid economic growth,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a release. “Spending is being supported by the job market and real wage gains. Inflation remains stubborn but is almost entirely in services rather than retail goods. May’s year-over-year gains are in line with what we saw earlier this year, and the month-over-month increases are the largest in more than a year. We believe this underscores that April’s moderation was an outlier.”
According to CNBC and NRF, their “Retail Monitor” report uses actual, anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions and does not need to be revised monthly or annually, in contrast to survey-based numbers collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.
By that measure, total retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 1.35% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 3.03% unadjusted year over year in May, according to the Retail Monitor. That compared with an increase of 0.26% month over month and a decrease of 0.6% year over year in April.
The Retail Monitor calculation of core retail sales (excluding restaurants in addition to automobiles and gasoline) was up 1.2% month over month in May and up 2.88% year over year. That compared with an increase of 0.4% month over month and a decrease of 0.05% year over year in April.
Total sales were up 2.13% year over year for the first five months of the year and core sales were up 2.48%. The month-over-month gains were the highest since April 2023, when total sales were up 1.13% and core sales were up 1.27%.
The hottest five specific retail categories were: online sales (up 17.91% year over year), health & personal care stores (up 6.86%), and clothing & accessory stores (up 6.24%), general merchandise stores (up 4.89% year over year), and grocery & beverage stores (up 2.53%).
They led four other categories that were down slightly, including building & garden supply stores (down 0.53% year over year), sporting goods, hobby, music & book stores (down 0.71%), electronics & appliance stores (down 0.87%), and furniture & home furnishings stores (down 3.21%).
