Retail Sales Growth Better-Than-Expected in the US

Sales in every merchant category increased in May. Excluding autos, sales rose 1.2%. Sales of electronics increased 0.7% and sales at department stores jumped 1.2%, the most since March 2007.

 The Federal Reserve said
that risks of a „substantial downturn” have receded. However,
many economists are not convinced the boost from the rebate checks
will last. Some of them said one possible explanation was that
consumers have suddenly returned to their carefree spending ways
despite weak consumer confidence readings and the credit crunch. But
he said a more likely reason was that rebate checks were giving a
temporary boost to spending that would not last, resulting in weaker
economic performance in coming months.