U.S. Economy: Retail Sales Rise Less Than Forecast (Shobhana Chandra)

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Retail sales in the United States rose less than forecast as the coldest February in more than a decade kept shoppers home and added to concerns the economic slowdown will deepen.

By Shobhana Chandra

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the United States rose less than forecast as the coldest February in more than a decade kept shoppers home and added to concerns the economic slowdown will deepen.

The 0.1 percent gain, largely because of gasoline and car purchases, followed no change in the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Sales excluding automobiles unexpectedly dropped 0.1 percent after a revised 0.2 percent gain that was smaller than previously reported.

The figures point to a gradual slowdown in consumer spending, which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has called a ``mainstay'' of the expansion. Economists at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York were among those that said the report may cause them to lower forecasts for first-quarter economic growth.

``This is mostly weather-related,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, the only economist in a Bloomberg News survey to forecast the drop in purchases aside from cars. ``The underlying dynamics are still decent when it comes to consumer spending. It's weaker than last year but not a lot.''

Treasury notes extended gains immediately following the report. The yield on the 10-year note fell to 4.53 percent at 10:54 a.m. in New York, from 4.55 percent late yesterday.