Today Mitsubishi Bank/Schroder-Werthiem released its report on comparable-store retail sales for the week ended May 25. Mitsubishi's weekly report is based on a subset of its monthly survey of sales by 70 to 80 retail chains.

Week-to-week sales were up by 3.0 percent in the week ending last Saturday. This compares with a drop of 4.0 percent in the week before that. The week's activity was led by seasonal items like fans and air conditioners and swimming pool items. Most retailers reported that sales either met or exceeded their expectations.

Mitsubishi said that it expected that May chain store sales would show a gain of 5 percent, an upward revision of its previous 3.5 to 4 percent prediction. For the month of April, sales rose 1.1 percent at the stores surveyed by Mitsubishi.

Consumer expenditures account for two-thirds of the nation's Gross Domestic Product. So, the economic health of the country is heavily dependent on whether the populace is out there hitting the malls and car dealers. You may recall, in the May 14 article, we saw that retail sales as reflected by the Department of Commerce survey had risen by 6.0 percent (+/-2.0%) during the twelve-month period ending in April.

The Commerce Department's April report on Personal Income and Spending is scheduled for release this Friday. This should give us further insight into recent patterns of consumer spending.

Byline: Lafferty (MF Merlin)