Current Data
The Chicago Fed Advance Retail Trade Summary (CARTS) tracks the U.S. Census Bureau's Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) on a weekly basis, providing an early snapshot of national retail spending. Updates to CARTS are released at 8:30 a.m. ET on scheduled days. The first release of the month covers the entirety of the previous month (final release), and the second release covers the first half of the current month (preliminary release).
Preliminary Release for April 2024
In the second week of April, the Weekly Index of Retail Trade increased 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis after increasing 0.1% in the previous week. For the month of April, retail & food services sales excluding motor vehicles & parts (ex. auto) are projected to increase 0.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis and to increase 0.4% when adjusted for inflation.
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Current CARTS Release | May 3, 2024 | |
Recent Monthly Values | May 3, 2024 | CSV |
The table contains month-over-month (m/m) percent changes for retail & food services sales and prices ex. auto. Inflation-adjusted retail & food services sales ex. auto are constructed using the price deflator for the similar category. The latest monthly values in the table are projections based on the Weekly Indexes of Retail Trade and Prices using data available as of May 2, 2024.
Recent Monthly Values
percent change, m/m
Apr '24 | Mar | Feb | Jan | Dec `23 | Nov | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Retail & food services sales ex. auto | +0.9* | +1.1 | +0.7 | –0.8 | +0.3 | 0.0 |
Inflation-adjusted | +0.4* | +0.8 | +0.2 | –0.7 | +0.5 | +0.5 |
The first figure shows retail & food services sales ex. auto from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) and Advance Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MARTS). Also shown in the figure as a seasonally adjusted monthly rate is a weekly index of retail trade that is benchmarked to the Census Bureau’s data. The index summarizes weekly data on retail transactions & foot traffic, gasoline sales, and consumer sentiment, and is used to project current monthly retail & food services sales ex. auto.
The second figure shows retail & food services prices ex. auto as measured by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’s (BEA) chain-weighted price index. Also shown in the figure is a seasonally adjusted weekly index of retail prices that is bench-marked to the BEA’s data. The index summarizes weekly data on gasoline prices and monthly and weekly measures of online prices.