The US Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $343.2 billion, a decrease of 2.7 percent from the previous month and 9.8 percent below December 2007.  Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that import prices plunged 9.3% in 2008 -  a record decline. 

Total sales for the 12 months of 2008 were down 0.1 percent (±0.4%)* from 2007. Total sales for the October through December 2008 period were down 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago. The October to November 2008 percent change was revised from –1.8 percent  to –2.1 percent.

Retail trade sales were down 2.7 percent from November 2008 and were 10.8 percent below last year. Gasoline stations sales were down 35.5 percent from December 2007 and motor vehicle and parts dealers sales were down 22.4 percent from last year.

US import prices plunge at record rate

The U.S. Import Price Index declined 4.2 percent in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of  the U.S. Department of Labor reported today, following decreases in each of the previous four months.   Export prices also fell for the fifth consecutive month, declining 2.3 percent in December after a 3.4 percent drop the previous month.

Import prices fell 4.2 percent in December and have fallen 21.7 percent overall since July.  Continued lower prices for both petroleum and nonpetroleum prices in December contributed to the  decrease.  Overall, import prices fell 9.3 percent in 2008, the first year the index declined since a 9.1 percent drop in 2001.  The 2008 decrease was also the largest calendar year decline since the index was first published in 1982.

Petroleum prices fell sharply for the fifth consecutive month, decreasing 21.4 percent in  December after falling 55.5 percent over the previous four months.  Despite increasing 51.6 percent over  the first seven months of 2008, petroleum prices finished the year down 47.0 percent for the December 2007-2008 period.  That decline was the largest calendar year decrease since the index was first  published in 1982 and followed a 48.1 percent increase in 2007.