Washington, Jan 13 (IANS): US retail and food sales rose slightly in December, marking the weakest monthly increase in seven months, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
It said the combined retail and food services gained 0.1 percent to seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion in December from the previous month, after posing a revised 0.4 percent gain in November. The figure represented a 6.5-percent increase from a year earlier, said the department.
Total sales for the 12 months of 2011 amounted to nearly $4.7 trillion, 7.7 percent up from 2010, Xinhua said quoting a Commerce Department report.
Consumer spending accounted for about 70 percent of the total activity in the world's largest economy, which is on track of recovery from the worst recession in decades.