Retail Sales Rose Just 0.2% Last Month

Sales at the nation’s retail stores edged up a modest 0.2 percent in August in a performance likely to give ammunition to those arguing the Federal Reserve doesn’t have to rush in and raise interest rates later this month.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that the tiny gain in August sales followed an even more lackluster 0.1 percent July increase.

The government said that auto sales, which had fallen sharply in June and were unchanged in July, eked out a disappointing 0.1 percent gain in August. Many economists had been expecting more of a rebound in this sector, which accounts for one-fourth of total retail sales.

For August, retail sales would have been up 0.2 percent excluding the auto sector, the same percentage change as the overall figure.

Much of the strength outside of autos came from department stores, where sales surged by 0.7 percent, following a 0.2 percent June increase.

In other economic news this week:

The Labor Department reported that its Producer Price Index was up 0.3 percent in August, reflecting a big jump in energy prices and a gain in food costs. Outside of food and energy, prices actually fell by 0.1 percent in August.

The Commerce Department said the deficit in the current account, the broadest measure of U.S. Trade, jumped to $38.8 billion in the second quarter, driven by higher oil and merchandise imports.

The Labor Department reported that productivity, the measure of output per hour of work, edged up at an anemic annual rate of 0.5 percent in the second quarter.