Global Growth? Retail Sales Flop In US, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia

Consumers unexpectedly threw in the towel in 5 countries but the central banks and the IMF insist everything is fine.

On February 14, I noted US Retail Sales Dive, Negative Revisions Too. This will impact both 4th quarter and first quarter GDP estimates.

On February 22, Bloomberg reported Canadian Retail Sales Drop Unexpectedly.

“Receipts fell 0.8 percent to C$49.6 billion in the last month of 2017, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. It was the biggest monthly decline since March 2016. Economists were expecting no change during the month.”

On February 16, the Financial Times reported UK retail sales figures disappoint. The results were positive but barely.

“The volume of retail sales grew by 0.1 per cent month-on-month, far below analysts’ expectations of 0.5 per cent growth in January, according to a poll from Thomson Reuters. On the year, sales were up by 1.6 per cent, from 1.4 per cent, far below expectations for a 2.6 per cent rise.”

On January 31, Reuters reported German Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall in December.

On February 6, Business Insider reported Australian retail spending for the Christmas was far weaker than many were expecting.

Given the Fed’s outlook and increasing expectations of four rate hikes plus tapering in the US, tapering in the EU, and rate hikes in the UK, such reports must be meaningless.

Also note the IMF made a “Brighter Forecast” for the global economy in January. When has the IMF ever been wrong?