The American consumer continued to shop and spend at high levels in February, according to the latest findings of the NRF Executive Opinion Survey, a monthly index by the National Retail Federation. The Retail Sector Performance Index was at 62.8%, jumping 1,990 basis points from February last year, but off 220 basis points from January’s 65.0% reading.

The Index, or RSPI measures retail executives’ evaluations of a number of core retail performance metrics and is based on a scale of 0% – 100%, with 50% equaling normal.
The Operations Index, which takes into account employment and inventory, came in at 50.0%, off 210 basis points from the 52.1% in January, but was 420 basis points higher than the February 2002 index.

Retailers surveyed were very optimistic about traffic and sales in February, with the Current Demand Index — the average of sales and traffic — posting another high with a reading of 69.8%, a full 32.8 percentage points above last February’s 37.0% and 170 basis points above January’s reading.

The NRF said the “most surprising surge” came from Customer Traffic, which reported its highest reading since the survey started in September 2002. The 71.9% reading for February was 13.6 percentage points higher than January.

The six-month look ahead Demand Outlook, at 68.8%, was at the second highest level since September 2002.