US retail sales fell for the second straight month in November, likely under pressure from new COVID-19 infections and declining household income, contributing to growing signs of a slowdown in the pandemic economy’s recovery recession.
Retail sales fell 1.1% last month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The data for October was revised down to show sales were down 0.1% from 0.3% as previously reported. October’s decline was the first since April, when stringent measures to contain the first wave of coronavirus cases paralyzed the economy.
Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales declined 0.5% last month after a downwardly revised 0.1% decline in October. These so-called core sales correspond most closely to the consumer spending component of the gross domestic product. They were previously estimated to be up 0.1% in October.
Data from this month showed that the economy, which went into recession in February, added the fewest jobs in six months in November. The number of people submitting new claims for unemployment benefits rose to nearly three months in the first week of December.
The United States is grappling with a new outbreak of Covid-19 infections, with the death toll from the respiratory disease rising above 300,000 Monday, according to a Reuters census of official data. Many state and local governments have imposed new restrictions on businesses, while some consumers are shunning shopping centers, restaurants and bars.
Restaurants have moved out in the summer, and the arrival of cold weather is also undermining spending.
The situation is exacerbated by the disappearance of a weekly unemployment benefit. More than $ 3 trillion in government coronavirus control is nearly exhausted. At least 9 million unemployed and under-employed Americans will lose government-funded benefits on Dec. 26, with Congress struggling to agree on another bailout package.
Federal Reserve officials were scheduled to wrap up a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. Policymakers are expected to keep interest rates close to zero and provide a roadmap for what could prompt them to pump more money into the economy.
Although a vaccine against the coronavirus is being rolled out, it could likely take a while for many Americans to be vaccinated. The spiraling virus and the lack of additional stimulus measures have boosted expectations for GDP growth in the fourth quarter well below 5% year-on-year.
The economy grew 33.1% in the third quarter, after contracting 31.4% in the April-June quarter, the deepest since the government began tracking records in 1947.