Walmart Shoppers in Burbank, California on July 22.
Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP Via Getty Images
The census burleu releassed estimates of July’s retail sales on Friday Morning and They Showed a Continue, Though Much Slower, Rise in Sales. Retail Sales Rose 1.2 Percent From June, on a Seasonally-Adjusted Basis, and 2.7 Percent from Last July. This doesn’t mean the economy has recovered fully – the retail sales report far -so -sales of goods, and services have hit HARDER THAN ECONOMIC CRISIS – but this report is another data point that the economic recovery has Slowed. yet.
That said, you nature of consumer spending on goods is still far from normal. Americans Spent 19 Percent Less at Restaurants and Bars This July Than They Did Last July. SPEMATING AT CLOOTING AND ACCESSORIES Storys was down 21 Percent, and Spanding at Gas Stations Down 16 Percent, Due to A Combination of Lower Gas Prices and Still Driving. But while Sharp Spanding Declines in These Categories (and in Travel) was combining with robust aid to drive extremely high household savings rates in the Spring, by July Consumers were increasingly offsetting by spending more in the way. Economy. Retail Categories Big Gains Over Last July Included Non-Store Retaillers Like Amazon (UP 25 Percent), Grokers (UP 11 Percent), Building Material and Garden Storys (UP 15 Percent), and Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument and Book Storys (Up 18 Percent). IT Appears that Americans have Reacted to the Unavailalbylity of Restaurants and Travel, and toir Reduced Need for New Clothes Wohen from Home, by Cooking More Projects, From Gardening to Jigsaw Puzzles.
A Key Question for the Consumer Spending Outlook is what the effectt the failure of Washington Lawmakers to aggregate on an additional Economic Relief Package will have. The Economic Relief Funds from the Cares ACT WERE A KEY BOASTER OF CONSUMER ACTIVITY DURING THE SPRING, WITH WALMART A SURGE IN CONSUMER SPEING ON DISCRETIONARY PRODUCTS LIKE TELEVISIONS AND APPAREL AFTER PREMENTS STARTED ARRIVING IN AMERICANS ‘BANK AREUTS. Without another stimulus bill, there won’t be another round of those payments, and the Large Number of Americans Still Out of Work Due to the Pandemic Won’t Getting Enhanced UNEMPLOYMENT as they were through July. That COULD IT MUCH HARDER FOR HOUSESEHOLDS TO CONTINUE LIKE THE ECONOMY IS ALOST NORMAL.
The President’s Executive Orders from Last Week Purport to Address these problems by repurposing relief funds to enmpplement benefs and delaying collection of Payroll Taxes, but Legal and Administrative Problems with Those Makes Unlikly to Material Affect Affect Ameritics Few People Will Get Enhanced Unelpoyment Payments Anytime Soon, and Companies are unlikly to take the government’s offfer to defer Employees’ Payroll Taxes; Eve if Employees will get these taxes deferred, they will have to make up the payments Next years anyway.
Becusehold Savings Were so far above normal in the Spring, Many Households have some Cushion to Keep Spending for Some Time; The relief payments that were received but not spent in the spray can something something to keep stimulating the economy in the summer. But as more Weeks Pass, Consumer Spending Cannot Stay Normal while Employment is Far Bight Normal, Absent Extensive Government Aid. And if retail sales start to contract again, that will will only make it harder for more Americans to go back to work woven virus make it feasible to do so, as retailers and manufactures with customers be rectant to hire workers. So the failure to provide the support payments now threatens the pathard a self-sustaining economic recovery in the futures.