Report Said to Show Economy Is Slowing: Retail Sales Down 0.2 Pet. in October RETAIL SALE
Alter a summer surge, consumer spending at the nationÛªs retail outlets dipped in September and again last month, the government reported yesterday, and analysts said the decline is an indication that the rapid economic growth of the past year is cooling off</br></br>The Commerce Department said that a sharp decline in auto sales caused overall retail sales to fall 0.2 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted $213.7 billion as new-car purchases dropped 2 percent September retail sales were revised downward yesterday to show a 0.1 percent decline instead of the 0.3 percent increase originally reported.</br></br>Meanwhile, a separate report from the Labor Department said that producer prices for finished goods increased 0.1 percent in October following a 0.5 percent rise in September. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the producer price index was flat in October after rising 0.4 percent in September.</br></br>Despites the increases the Labor Department found in finished goods pricesÛÓthose are the prices charged by producers when they first sell a completed itemÛÓanalysts said inflation remains well under control, especially so for manufactured products. Over the past 12 months, for instance, the PPI is down 0.2 percent while the core portion of the index, which doesn't include food and energy goods, was up only 0.3 percent.</br></br>Even though the two monthly declines in retail sales were small, they left the level of sales lower than their average during the July-September period. With consumer spending, which includes goods and services not sold through retailers, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the gross domestic product, analysts said that recent weakness points to a potentially significant slowdown in economic growth in the final three monthsofthis year.