New York, NY, June 28--Chain store retail sales fell in the latest week as the demand for seasonal goods slowed on a week-over-week basis, but the sales pace on a year-over-year basis surged, a retail report said on Tuesday.
Sales fell 0.6 percent in the week ended June 25, compared with a 0.1 percent rise the previous week, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS said in a joint report.
Compared with the same week a year ago, sales surged to a 4.2 percent increase after a 3.7 percent rise the preceding week -- the strongest since April 2.
"Hot weather continued to lift demand for seasonal goods, but less so compared to last week," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"Even though we saw sales decline on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week, the year-over-year pace of sales was healthy and pointed to good performance for the month as a whole. Given this, ICSC expects the monthly comp-store sales performance will increase by about 4.5 percent -- the strongest since February's 4.7 percent increase," Niemira added.
