Chicago Fed Advance Retail Trade Summary (CARTS)
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).


Final Release for February 2024

In the fourth week of February, the Weekly Index of Retail Trade was unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis after being unchanged in the previous week. For the month of February, retail & food services sales excluding motor vehicles & parts (ex. auto) are projected to increase 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis and to increase 0.1% when adjusted for inflation.

Download Center

Current CARTS Release March 13, 2024 PDF
Recent Monthly Values March 13, 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 March 12, 2024.

Recent Monthly Values
percent change, m/m

Feb '24 Jan Dec '23 Nov Oct Sep
Retail & food services sales ex. auto +0.4* –0.6 +0.4 –0.1 –0.1 +0.8
Inflation-adjusted +0.1* –0.5 +0.6 +0.4 +0.2 +0.5

* Retail sales projections are based on the MRTS & MARTS and weekly data for retail transactions from Consumer Edge, SafeGraph, Facteus, BEA, and Numerator; retail foot traffic from Advan; gasoline sales from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA); and consumer sentiment from Morning Consult. Retail & food services sales ex. auto are projected from the mixed-frequency dynamic factor model used to estimate the Weekly Index of Retail Trade. Retail price projections are based on the BEA retail & food services ex. auto chain-weighted price index; weekly gas prices from the EIA; a weekly index of online prices from State Street PriceStats; and the monthly Adobe Digital Price Index. Retail & food services prices ex. auto are projected from the mixed-frequency vector autoregressive model used to estimate the Weekly Index of Retail Prices.


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.


Subscribe to CARTS

To sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please enter your contact information below.

Contact Us
Having trouble accessing something on this page? Please send us an email and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60604-1413, USA. Tel. (312) 322-5322

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.

Please review our Privacy Policy | Legal Notices