With a solid start to the season, the National Retail Federation last week revised its holiday forecast to 3.3%, up from 2.3%. The revision is due to improvement in a variety of economic indicators including stock market gains, recent income growth, savings built up during the recession.


Consumers have not been suffering from a lack of spending power, they've just been missing the confidence to use it,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. “With noticeable improvement in key economic indicators combined with great deals on merchandise, consumers have certainly shown they shouldn't be counted out this holiday season.”