Retail Sales Fall the Most in Nearly 10 Years, Crushing Economic Optimism | Fortune
U.S. retail sales in December were down 1.2%, the biggest decline since September of 2009. The tumble shocked economists, who were expecting a 0.2% increase, and raises new fears about the state of the economy.
The numbers were delayed because of the government shutdown and, at present, there’s no way to tell if it was an end-of-year fluke, as there’s no current reporting date scheduled for the January numbers.