U.S. Retail Sales Fell 16.4% in April, Their Worst Ever Drop

(C) Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com — Lockdowns across the U.S. led retail sales to their deepest monthly fall on record in April, new data published on Friday showed.

The Census Bureau said that retail sales fell by 16.4%, after a drop of 8.4% in March. That is considerably worse than the 12% fall expected by analysts ahead of time. The March drop was a tad less steep than the initial estimate of 8.7%.

Core retail sales, which strip out auto sales, also fell by a record-breaking 17.2%, compared to expectations for a decline of only 8.6%.

The figures illustrated the sharp decline in fortunes between online retailers and those tied to their physical stores. Non-store retail volumes rose 8.4% on the month.

The figures are the latest hard data generated for the first month to show the full impact of lockdowns that were imposed as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the U.S.

Public health measures have had a devastating effect on virtually all sectors of the economy since then, with over one quarter of the U.S. workforce filing for jobless benefits.

More updates for April are due at 9:15 AM ET (1315 GMT) with the publication of industrial production and manufacturing output numbers for the month.