ADVANCED JULY SALES FOR RETAIL SALES AND FOOD SERVICES

July retail sales advanced 1.8% less than expected 2% but more than June gain of 1.7% driven by auto discounting from auto manufacturers. Excluding auto sales the retail sales advanced 0.3% less than estimates of 0.6%.


The following is the unedited transcript of the text from the U.S. Census Bureau News which can be accessed at www.economicindicators.gov.


The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for July, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $357.0 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous month and up 10.3 percent from July 2004.

Total sales for the May through July 2005 period were up 8.8 percent from the same period a year ago. The May to June 2005 percent change was unrevised from +1.7 percent.

Retail trade sales were up 1.9 percent from June and were up 10.7 percent above last year. Gasoline station sales were up 20.3 percent from July 2004 and sales of motor vehicle and parts dealers were up 17.9 percent from last year.