Catenaa, Tuesday, June 17, 2025- US retail sales fell in May, official data showed on Tuesday, as President Trump’s tariffs reduced gas and auto purchases.
Retail trade sales were down 0.9% from April 2025, and up 3.0% from last year, surpassing economists’ expectations for a 0.6% decline month on month.
A 2% decline in gasoline sales, a 3.5% slide in auto purchases and a 2.7% decline in building materials drove the May headline number lower.
“The weakness in retail sales in May was mostly due to temporary drags from the end of tariff front-running and the unseasonably wet weather in the east of the country, so should reverse in June,” Capital Economics North America’s Bradley Saunders wrote in a research note.
There was some positive news in the release: The control group in Thursday’s release, which excludes several volatile categories and factors from the gross domestic product (GDP) reading for the quarter, rose 0.4%.
This compares with a 0.1% decrease seen in April. Economists expected a 0.3% increase. The largest increase in May was seen in miscellaneous store retailers, where sales rose 2.9%.
May sales, excluding auto and gas, declined 0.1%. Economists had expected a 0.3% rise. In April, sales excluding auto and gas rose 0.1%.
Saunders added that the increased sales in the control group suggest that “overall consumption continues to look healthy.”
The data comes as investors have been closely watching how the implementation of President Trump’s tariffs will impact data.
The survey month encapsulated Trump’s recent tariff rollbacks, including the 90-day tariff pause between the US and China. To date, the increased duties have overall done little to push up inflation, while labor market data has shown a gradual cooling.
