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US Retail Sales Jumped Sharply in May

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Americans opened their wallets in May, with a record surge
   in retail spending as U.S. businesses began to reopen after largely
   being shut down for weeks by the coronavirus pandemic.

   Sales jumped 17.7% over April, the most in data going back to 1992, the
   Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The figure was twice what
   economists had forecast.

   Even with the improvement, however, the drag on the economy wrought by
   the coronavirus left retail sales down 6.1% from a year ago.

   All retail sales categories advanced in May, with a 44% increase in car
   and truck sales and a 29% increase in restaurant receipts as Americans
   looked to escape from their homebound coronavirus quarantines and go
   out to eat, or at least drive by for curb-side food pick-ups. Clothing
   and furniture sales also jumped.

   The retail spending was boosted by $1,200 stipends the U.S. government
   sent in April and May to many Americans to ease the economic pain of
   the coronavirus shutdowns and by the ongoing $600-a-week extra
   unemployment cash benefits being sent to the more than 40 million
   workers who have been laid off from their jobs.

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