New York, NY, August 1, 2006--Weekly U.S. chain store sales continued to recover as sales posted a healthy 0.9-percent increase in the seven days ending Saturday.
The International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC said Tuesday that, on a year-over-year basis, however, overall demand continued to soften by 1.8 percent, its slowest gain since Feb. 19, 2005.
"The month finished on a mixed basis--improving nicely from the prior week, but the year-over-year pace slowed to its lowest year-over-year gain in over 17 months, " said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"Even with this slight week-over-week increase, for July, we continue to expect comparable store sales to rise by about 2.5 percent for the month, on a year-over-year bases," Niemira added.
