NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said: “We’re continuing to see growth for core retail sales this year at about the same pace as last year. Despite a soft labour market, aggregate consumer spending has been supported by wage gains and an improvement in the stock market. Consumers are seeing their way through the uncertainty with trade policies, but I expect the inflation associated with tariffs to be felt later this year. Consumers remain very price sensitive, and those costs are likely to weigh heavily on consumer budgets.”    

These findings are consistent with those reported by the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, which indicated that core retail sales increased by 0.23% on a seasonally adjusted basis from April to May and saw a 4.2% rise on an unadjusted basis from the previous year.

Despite the growth in core retail sales, overall retail sales in the US for the month of May declined by 0.9% when adjusted for seasonal variations from the previous month.

It exhibited a 3.3% increase when not adjusted from the same period last year.

This contrasts with April’s figures, which showed a 0.1% monthly decrease and a 5% yearly increase.

Furthermore, the latest Global Port Tracker report issued jointly by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates last week, anticipated an increase in cargo imports at major US container ports in upcoming months, with retailers are preparing to take advantage of a temporary 90-day reduction in tariffs on goods imported from China.

By Just Style