Sales at US retailers rose slightly less than expected in December while underlying inflation remained calm, government reports showed today.
Despite the modest rise in December, a key shopping month, retail sales for all of 2010 reversed two years of contraction and posted the biggest gain in more than a decade.
The reports, which pointed to steady if modest recovery with scant price pressures, are unlikely to budge the US Federal Reserve from its $600 billion bond buying programme aimed at accelerating growth and lowering the lofty jobless rate.
Total retail sales climbed 0.6%, advancing for the sixth month in a row as sales declines at electronics and general merchandise stores were offset by gains in petrol and building materials sales, the Commerce Department said.
Analysts had been expecting sales to gain 0.8% and called the retail sales report 'mildly disappointing'.
Total sales for the 12 months of 2010 were up 6.6% from the previous year after a 6.5% drop in 2009. It was the largest 12-month gain in sales since 1999.
Sharply higher prices at the pump pushed overall consumer prices up to their fastest pace in a year and a half, though core prices, which strip out volatile food and energy costs, barely budged, a Labor Department report showed.
Overall consumer prices rose a slightly more than expected 0.5% in December, but excluding volatile food and energy costs, retail prices rose just 0.1%, in line with expectations.
Overall consumer prices rose 1.5% from the same month a year ago, while core consumer prices gained 0.8% in 2010, the slowest calendar year pace since the department started keeping records in 1958.
US industrial output sharply rebounds in 2010
US industrial production sharply rebounded 5.8% in 2010 from a slump the prior year, with December output jumping 0.8%, double expectations.
The December increase followed a 0.3% rise in the industrial production index in November, the Federal Reserve reported.
The full-year advance of 5.8% in industrial production marked a turnaround but not a complete recovery from the 9.3% plunge in 2009 as the economy struggled to exit recession.
The Fed's 2010 index figure still was 5% below its level before the 2008-2009 recession.
In December, output was boosted by a 4.3% rise in energy production 'as unusually cold weather boosted the demand for heating,' the central bank said.
