Retail Sales Drop in December, But Economists Urge Calm
January 14, 2022 at 15:55 PM EST
At a time when cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are surging and inflation is rising at a rapid rate, the Commerce Department on Friday reported that retail sales dropped to $626.8 billion in December, down 1.9% from the previous month. This marks the first decline after four consecutive months of sales increases.