Overall US retail sales have increase by the greatest amount in five months, up 1.1% in February 2012 when compared to the previous month. When compared to February 2011 overall retail sales are up 6.5%. The US Census Bureau also did a comparison of the period December 2011-February 2012 to the same period a year previously and retail sales was up an impressive 6.4%. The monetary value of US retail food and services in February 2012 was $407.8 million.

Some notable results were that Building Materials and Garden Equipment were up 13.8% when compared to a year previously and Gasoline stations were up 10.3% on February…

US retail sales in December 2011, up 0.1%, was the slowest rate of growth in the last seven months. Year on year sales were up 6.5%.

The 0.1% increase in December was disappointing when compared to a 0.4% increase in November. The slow rate of growth was reflected by an increase in savings, despite high hopes for the December shopping season.

However the year 2011 represented the strongest year for US retailers since 1999, according to the US commerce department. Electronic sales were the main victims in December and showed the biggest decrease since March 1999. The first week of January continued the downward trend as sales dropped 5.4%…