There has been a drop in the retail sales in the month of September by an amount that is the largest in seven months. This possibly signals that the rises in the trade tensions and the markets which are turbulent have had an impact on the spending of the consumers.
The sales in retail saw a fall of 0.3% in the previous month after a gain of 0.6% in the month of August as per the report of the Commerce Department on Wednesday. This was the first decline after a drop of 0.5% in the month of February.
The strength of the consumer spending was good through the spring and economists were counting on it to be continuously strong to protect the economy of the United States as it bore the brunt of the trade war that President Trump had waged against China.
The decline in spending in the month of October was unexpected and had been influenced by a lot of special factors which include a decline of 0.7% in sales at the gasoline stations which was a decline that can be termed as a reflection of the falling of the gas prices in the month.
The economy had grown overall at an annual rate of 2% in the quarter of April-June with most of this strength coming from a surge of 4.6% in the spending of the consumers which had accounted for close to 70% of the economic activity.
This pace of spending was expected to slow down the quarter of July-September however remained strong enough to aid the growth rate of economy to remain at 2% which was seen during spring time.
The economists are worried about further fall due to the impact of the trade war.
