Kiplinger Retail Outlook: Consumers Turning More Cautious

Retail sales growth will likely stay modest for the rest of the year.

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Retail sales rose a modest 0.1% in May, following a small decline in April. Core sales (which exclude motor vehicles, gasoline and food services) rose 0.3%. In-store sales have inched up a tiny amount in each of the past three months.

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David Payne
Staff Economist, The Kiplinger Letter

David is both staff economist and reporter for The Kiplinger Letter, overseeing Kiplinger forecasts for the U.S. and world economies. Previously, he was senior principal economist in the Center for Forecasting and Modeling at IHS/GlobalInsight, and an economist in the Chief Economist's Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce. David has co-written weekly reports on economic conditions since 1992, and has forecasted GDP and its components since 1995, beating the Blue Chip Indicators forecasts two-thirds of the time. David is a Certified Business Economist as recognized by the National Association for Business Economics. He has two master's degrees and is ABD in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.