Retail spending holding up, MasterCard's SpendingPulse suggests
Furniture expenditures still below pre-recession levels, report finds
Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, December 21, 2010
PURCHASE, NY — MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, a report that tracks national retail and services sales, indicates that December retail sales are on the upswing, with several of the sectors posting strong gains.
"The modest growth we first saw with the August Back-to-School season has accelerated. These results suggest that retail spending continues to gain traction," said Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.
He said that many sectors, including e-commerce, apparel, jewelry and luxury items, are making significant inroads.
McNamara said that e-commerce continues to be one of the season's rock stars with a season-to-date growth rate of 13.5%. The sector has been showing double-digit weekly year-over-year growth rates since the second week in November.
Apparel was also up 9.8% for the season to date while jewelry and the luxury sectors were each up almost 3%.
Spending on furniture, however, is still below pre-recession levels, according to McNamara. Specifically, he said that spending on furniture is about 20% below the levels experienced before the recession.
To watch a short video with additional commentary from McNamara, click here.
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