[bratticus]

ECONOMIC REPORT: U.S. Retail Sales Plunge 2.7% In December

Dow Jones Newswire via CNNMoney
January 14, 2009: 02:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Stung by weak demand and falling prices, U.S. retail sales plunged a seasonally adjusted 2.7% in December from November, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday.

Excluding a 0.7% decline in auto sales, retail sales recorded their biggest drop since record-keeping began in the early 1990s, falling 3.1%.

And with both gasoline and autos excluded, sales fell 1.5%, the largest drop since September 2001.

"The holiday season was truly disastrous," wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics. Poor retail sales point to a "deeper recession than previously anticipated," said Peter Kretzmer, an economist for the Bank of America.

The nation's retail sales have fallen for six months in a row now -- the longest decline on record -- with the declines accelerating as the economy weakened in the final quarter of the year. Sales data were revised lower for both October and November, to declines of 3.4% and 2.1%, respectively.

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