US retailers posted better-than-expected chain-store sales - not including numbers for America's top retailer, Wal-Mart - in February, increasing 4.2 per cent year on year and 0.6 per cent from January, said the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC).
This follows a solid 4.7 per cent rebound made in January, showing that consumers continue to increase spending, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce. This spending accounts for 70 per cent of the US economic activity and sustains container imports, intermodal traffic and trucking.
"This report indicates that the consumer momentum that was building up in the last two quarters of 2010 is spilling over into the first quarter of 2011 despite all the headwinds consumers face," said HIS Global Insight economist Chris Christopher.
"This is good news since it jives with the increase in consumer confidence, despite higher gasoline and food prices, a poor housing market and turmoil in the Middle East," he said.