FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008, AT 8:30 A.M. EDT
Aneta Lukasik / Timothy Winters CB08-70
Service Sector Statistics Division
(301) 763-2713
ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL TRADE AND FOOD SERVICES
APRIL 2008
| Notice of Revision: Monthly retail sales and inventories were revised based on the results of the 2006 Annual Retail Trade Survey. The Annual Revision of Monthly Retail and Food Services showing revised data can be found on our website at http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/annrev08.html. |
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $378.1 billion, a decrease of 0.2 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 2.0 percent (±0.7%) above April 2007. Total sales for the February through April 2008 period were up 2.2 percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The February to March 2008 percent change was unrevised from 0.2 percent (±0.2%)*.
Retail trade sales were down 0.3 percent (±0.7%)* from March 2008, but were 1.8 percent (±0.7%) above last year. Gasoline station sales were up 16.3 percent (±2.6%) from April 2007 and sales of food and beverage stores were up 5.7 percent (±0.8%) from last year.
The advance estimates are based on a subsample of the Census Bureau's full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 5,000 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of over three million retail and food services firms. Responding firms account for approximately 65% of the MARTS dollar volume estimate. For an explanation of the measures of sampling variability included in this report, please see the Reliability of Estimates section on the last page of this publication.
Percent Change in Retail and Food Services Sales
(Estimates adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday, and trading-day differences, but not for price changes)
The Advance Monthly Retail Sales for Retail and Food Services for April is scheduled to be released May 13, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
For information, visit the Census Bureau's Web site at <http://www.census.gov/retail>. This report is also available the day of issue through the Department of Commerce's STAT-USA (202-482-1986).
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