Retailers' Sales Declinced 0.9% In February --- Weak Auto Buying Led Fall But Consumer Spending Considered to Be Sound
WASHINGTON -- Retail sales fell 0.9% last month, as automobile purchases skidded, the Commerce Department said.</br></br>Aside from auto dealers, however, most other retailers -- including department stores, clothing stores and building-supply dealers -- reported healthy gains in sales. And the department made a large upward revision to its calculation of January retail sales, to a 2.8% increase from its original estimate of 1.6%</br></br>January's rise, just as February's decline, was influenced heavily by car buying. In January, car sales rocketed 9.9%, according to the department; in February, they plunged 6%. Looking beyond the erratic auto figures, most economists said the retail numbers indicate consumer spending is sound enough to keep the economy growing.</br></br>"There is enough life in these numbers to suggest that consumer spending isn't deteriorating further," said George Iwanicki, an economist at Kidder, Peabody & Co. in New York. However, Mr. Iwanicki said the report "doesn't answer the question of whether the demand side of the economy is really rebounding."</br></br>The economy slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of 1989, hurt partly by the California earthquake, a strike at Boeing Co. and a severe slowdown in consumer spending. Higher prices on 1990 car models were a big factor behind consumers' reticence.