Gasoline prices push retail sales up in March

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in March as consumers had to dig deep to cover record high gasoline costs, according to a government report Monday that did little to dispel the gloom hanging over the economy.

Retail sales rose 0.2% in March, pushed up by a jump in gasoline sales, a Commerce Department report showed. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting retail sales to be unchanged from the previous month.

Sales at gas stations rose 1.1%. Gasoline prices hit records in March and have continued to rise since then, according to government data.

Excluding gasoline sales, retail sales were flat last month. In another sign of rising prices for commodities pressed by strong global demand, sales at food and beverage stores also rose. Retail sales data are not inflation-adjusted.

“It is a report that seems to highlight that consumers are moving into a more cautious mode,” said Drew Matus, senior financial economist at Lehman Bros. in New York.

A separate Commerce Department report showed that business sales fell in February, leaving unwanted buildups of inventories. The inventory-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take to deplete stocks at the current sales pace, rose to 1.28 months from 1.26 in January.

The retail sales data come after a report last week that showed U.S. consumer sentiment fell to a 26-year low in April.