WASHINGTON, May 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. retail sales edged up just 0.1 percent in April, a sharp slowdown from the 1.7 percent growth recorded in March, said a report by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.
Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were 724.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 0.1 percent from the previous month, and up 5.2 percent from a year ago.
Total sales for the February through April period were up 4.8 percent year on year, the report showed.
Retail trade sales were down 0.1 percent from March 2025, and up 4.7 percent from last year. Motor vehicle and parts dealers were up 9.4 percent from last year, while food service and drinking places were up 7.8 percent from April 2024.
"For the next few months at least, the retail sales report is set to be center stage as we seek to measure the impact of tariffs," Tim Quinlan and Shannon Grein, economists at Wells Fargo, wrote in an analysis.
"While import duties can introduce pass-through effect to the service sector, it is goods that are apt to be the most impacted. We may eventually see these impacts manifested through product scarcity or higher prices, but the first action will simply be evident in the sales activity," they said. ■
