Retail Sales Fall in January, Rise Without Auto Sales

Overall retail sales fell 0.9% in January, the Commerce Department said, but that figures turns markedly positive if sales of automobiles are not counted.

It was one of several mixed economic reports released Thursday.

Without auto sales, which slumped by 7.5% during the month, retail sales rose 1.3% -- the largest gain since October 2001. In December, retail sales, excluding automobile sales, rose 0.2%. Overall retail sales fell 0.7% in the final month of 2002, Commerce said.

Retail sales account for about a third of all economic activity, and are very important to the trucking industry, which hauls a good deal of consumer good and factory materials.

The Labor Department said that import prices rose 1.5% after prices of petroleum products surged by more than 12% during January. Without petroleum, import prices rose 0.2%.

Analysts said that the ex-petroleum figure indicated a lack of inflationary pressure on the market, Bloomberg reported. In that same report, Labor said export prices rose by 0.4%.

Another Labor Department report said that initial jobless claims fell 18,000 to 377,000 last week. The four-week moving average, which smoothes over changes in the weekly statistics, rose to 389,000 from 385,500 the previous week.