Retail Sales Beat Expectations

Retail sales in November beat expectations.

Retail sales grew 0.7% month-on-month in November, beating expectations.

Expectations were for retail sales to rise 0.4% in November when compared to the prior month.

The better-than-expected retail sales in November come despite Black Friday sales figures that disappointed.

But as Business Insider's Shane Ferro noted at the time, Black Friday sales tend to have very little correlation with overall holiday sales.

According to the latest report from the Census Bureau, excluding autos, sales rose 0.5% and excluding autos and gas, sales rose 0.6%.

Both these beat expectations.

Excluding autos, retail sales were expected to rise 0.1%, and excluding autos and gas, sales were expected to rise 0.5%.

Compared to last year, November retail sales rose 4.7%, and October's retail sales were revised up to 0.5% from 0.3%.

From Census, here are the month-on-month and year-on-year changes, charted.

And on Twitter, Bloomberg's Matt Boesler noted that excluding autos and gas sales rose 3.9% year-on-year in November, the fastest year-on-year increase in 16 months.

Here's Boesler's chart.