US retail sales recovered to pre-coronavirus levels last month as stores continued to do business despite the pandemic, but the rate of growth fell …
US retail sales recovered to pre-coronavirus levels last month as stores continued to do business despite the pandemic, but the rate of growth fell below expectations as COVID-19 infections surged and stimulus funds ran dry. Merchants raked in about $536 billion in July, up 1.2 percent from the prior month and roughly 1.6 percent above the level recorded in February before the pandemic shuttered shops and restaurants around the country, the US Census Bureau said Friday. That followed an 8.4 percent spike in June and a record 18.2 percent surge in May as officials eased harsh lockdown measures in place since March to control the virus’s spread. “Despite a rise in COVID-19 cases in the US, it’s encouraging to see consumer spending back to pre-pandemic levels, which demonstrates the resiliency of consumerism in the US, despite other aspects of American life being pretty bleak amid the pandemic,” said Marwan Forzley, CEO of payments-processing firm Veem.
