The Commerce Department released its latest figures for retail sale and restaurants, showing a rebound in September after a slow start to the year.
The retail and restaurant sector posted a 0.2 percent monthly gain in August, and an annual increase to date of 2.2 percent. Analysts believe that retail sales improvement is all that the economy needs to balance out a slowdown in the factories and oil fields, giving the economy movement which is overall growth.
Imported goods are cheaper in the shops due to a stronger dollar; and consumers have more money in their wallets, due to lower oil prices. But the other side of the coin is that what is good for consumers is hurting manufacturers, especially those who export goods, and companies in the oil and gas industries.
The overall improvement in the economy reflected in the numbers is expected to influence the decision of the Federal Reserve about whether to increase the overnight loan rate from what is essentially zero, for the first time in almost nine years.
US economist Jesse Hurwitz at Barclays, used the word “buoyant” to describe the US economy. He raised his firm’s guess at third quarter growth from 2.2 percent to a 2.4 percent annual growth.
“We expect the consumer to remain the dominant force behind U.S. economic growth,” Hurwitz wrote in a statement to his clients.
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