2009 Retail Sales: Largest Drop on Record

January 15th, 2010

Via: AP:

Retail sales fell in December as demand for autos, clothing and appliances all slipped, a disappointing finish to a year in which sales had the largest drop on record.

The weakness in consumer demand highlighted the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales declined 0.3 percent in December compared with November, much weaker than the 0.5 percent rise that economists had been expecting. Excluding autos, sales dropped by 0.2 percent, also weaker than the 0.3 percent rise analyst had forecast.

For the year, sales fell 6.2 percent, the biggest decline on records that go back to 1992. The only other year that annual sales fell was in 2008, when they slipped by 0.5 percent.

Posted in Economy | Top Of Page

One Response to “2009 Retail Sales: Largest Drop on Record”

  1. lagavulin says:
    January 15, 2010 at 4:31 pm

    But…But…But– all the news Experts assured me that sales during this Christmas holiday season would to be much better than expected!

    My God! How could the Experts have gotten this so wrong?

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