The Commerce Department reported that advance retail sales fell 2.7% month-over-month in December, well below an expected drop of 1.2%, and November was revised modestly lower. Ex-autos, sales dropped 3.1%, more than double a projected decline of 1.4%. November was revised from -1.6% to -2.5%.
Led by a 21.4% decline in petroleum, the Import Price Index dropped 4.2% in December, less than an expected decline of 5.3%. Although the decline slowed from November’s record drop of 7.0%, import prices have fallen for five straight months and remain in a downward trend.
Business inventories fell 0.7% in November, below the forecast of a 0.5% decline. Sales were down 5.1%, lifting the inventory-to-sales ratio from 1.34 to 1.41.
The Federal Reserve released its Beige Book, which summarizes economic activity in each of the Fed’s 12 districts. The report showed that the economy weakened across almost all of the districts since the last survey at the end of November.
