Consumer spending on retail goods in March comes in much better than expected, up 1.8%.
April 13, 2004: 8:38 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. retail sales showed a surprisingly strong March performance in a government report Tuesday as tax refunds added a little extra cash into consumers' pockets and offset the impact from higher gasoline prices.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 1.8 percent to $333 billion last month, compared with an upwardly revised 1 percent gain in February. Excluding autos -- which account for about a quarter of total sales and can fluctuate widely from month to month -- sales rose 1.7 percent.
Economists, on average, had expected total sales to rise 0.7 percent and sales excluding autos to rise 0.6 percent, according to Briefing.com.
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