Retail Sales Fall in July, Weakest in Five Months

Washington, DC, Aug. 13, 2008-- Retail sales fell in July, the weakest performance in five months, according to the Commerce Department.

The government said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month when a variety of economic woes combined to blunt the impact of billions of dollars in government stimulus payments to U.S. households.

It was the first decline since sales had fallen by 0.5 percent in February and it was a worse showing than the flat reading economists had been expecting. The new report did revise higher the estimate for June, showing sales rose by 0.3 percent that month rather than the 0.1 percent initial reading.

The weakness in July came after another big fall in auto sales, the worst sales month in 16 years.

Excluding the big drop in autos, retail sales would have posted a 0.4 percent increase. While that was a positive reading, it was still the weakest showing for sales excluding autos in five months.