New York, April 12--Chain store retail sales rose in the latest week, as consumers continued to spend, despite record high gasoline prices, a retail report said on Tuesday.
Sales rose 0.3 percent in the week ended April 9, compared with a 0.3 percent increase 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 slowed to 3.9 percent after a 4.4 percent rise the preceding week.
"Despite another record high level for gasoline prices for the week ending April 11 ... consumers still managed to eke out a small increase in spending this past week," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"For April, sales growth will be hurt by the shift in Easter between successive years, which will trim about 100 to 200 basis points from the year-over-year sales pace. Consequently, for the month of April we expect comp-store sales will grow about 2.0 percent," Niemira added.
Easter this year fell in late March versus April a year ago.
