No growth in US retail sales in August—data

WASHINGTON—Sales at US retailers were unchanged in August compared to July, official data from the Commerce Department showed Wednesday, in the latest disappointing data on the US economy.

The zero growth in US retail sales in month-on-month terms was lower than analysts’ consensus estimate of 0.2 percent growth.

Retail sales were 7.2 percent higher in August than the same month last year, the Commerce Department said.

In further bad news for the US economy, which depends heavily on consumer spending, the Commerce Department cut its estimate of July growth in retail sales from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent.

The August sales figure was weighed down by a 0.3 percent decrease in sales of automobiles and car parts, along with a sharp 0.7 percent drop in clothing sales, which usually tend to climb before the start of the school year.

“The slowdown in retail activity in August hints that the significant weakening in consumer sentiment during that period had an effect on demand,” said Peter Newland, an analyst at Barclays Capital.

US consumer sentiment fell sharply in August amid the debt-ceiling drama in Washington, Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the United States’s credit rating and the ensuing stock-market volatility.