By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. retail sales held up better than expected in July, as a drop in gasoline prices allowed consumers more room for spending on other things.
Overall retail sales were unchanged from June, but rose 0.7% on the month when sales of gasoline and automobiles are excluded from the calculations. That suggests that sales kept comfortably ahead of inflation during the month, given that the core consumer price index only rose by 0.3% in July.
The Commerce Department said core retail sales rose 0.4% on the month, clearly ahead of the 0.1% drop expected by analysts ahead of time.
The figures suggest that consumer spending is still strong, despite signs of cooling off across more and more sectors of the economy.