US retail sales endured a second month of record declines in a row in April as the coronavirus pandemic kept Americans at home.
The coronavirus shutdown is putting the US economy on track for its biggest contraction in the second quarter since the Great Depression.
The Commerce Department said today that retail sales plunged 16.4% last month, the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992.
Data for March was revised to show receipts at retailers falling 8.3% instead of dropping 8.7% as previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales plummeting by 12% in April.
Excluding cars, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales tumbled 15.3% last month after a surprise 3.1% jump in March.
These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of the gross domestic product report.
The collapse in retail sales added to a historic 20.5 million job losses last month in underscoring the deepening economic slump that analysts warn could take years to recover from.
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week warned of an "extended period" of weak growth and stagnant incomes.
Businesses around the US are staring to reopen as states and local governments ease travel restrictions, which were imposed in mid-March to slow the spread of Covid-19. But establishments are operating well below capacity and there are fears a second wave of Covid-19 infections could keep consumers away from shopping malls.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, tumbled at a 7.6% annualised rate in the first quarter, the sharpest drop since the second quarter of 1980.
The US economy contracted at a 4.8% rate in the January-March quarter. Output is expected to contract at as much as a 40% pace in the second quarter, the deepest since the 1930s.
