Retail sales rise by paltry 0.1% as shoppers feel pinch of high inflation

Retail sales barely rose last month as Americans burdened by persistently sticky rates of inflation increasingly pull back on spending.

Data released on Tuesday by the Commerce Department showed that the value of retail purchases rose 0.1% in May — below analyst estimates of 0.2%.

Retail sales for the previous month were revised downward to 0.2%.

Of the 13 categories listed by the Commerce Department, five of them showed declines as gasoline prices dropped and furniture stores hawked Memorial Day sales, according to government data.

The lackluster numbers show a marked downturn in consumer spending after more robust figures earlier this year. Economists now expect spending to continue at a moderate pace as US shoppers grapple with stubborn inflation and a weakening job market.

“With … consumer confidence plummeting again, maybe households aren’t quite as impervious to higher interest rates as we were beginning to believe,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.