December retail sales, excluding autos and fuel sales, grew by 2.8 percent year-over-year, or much slower than the 4.5 percent rate in November, according to a SpendingPulse report released by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard.
The underlying softness of holiday related sectors of retail sales acted as a drag on Decemberfs growth rate. However, when examining a broader view of retail, the growth rates show modest improvement.
Kamalesh Rao, Director of Economic Research for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, noted, gThroughout the year, we had been seeing a sustained, albeit gentle strength to the monthly numbers. This continued into the fourth quarter, which had a strong start, peaking by the third week of October. Then from that time until the end of the year, we saw frequent swings between acceleration and deceleration.h
A macro]economic indicator, MasterCard SpendingPulse reports on national retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance
