March Mastercard SpendingPulse indicates services are expanding, U.S. retail sales grow 8.4%
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"Retail sales remain strong but are stabilizing as consumers resume spending on passion areas like travel, live entertainment, indoor dining and other in-person activities," MA senior advisor and former CEO and Chairman of Saks Steve Sadove commented.
March spending indicates that services are making a comeback from airlines to lodging; also in-store retail sales are rebounding as consumer mobility increases.
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment, total retail sales excluding auto increased 8.4% Y/Y and 18% compared to pre-pandemic spending (2019), not adjusted for inflation.
This is in comparison to 8.7% Y/Y growth in February U.S. retail sales and 7.2% Y/Y growth in January.
Airline spending was driven by return to travel with Y/Y airline growth up 44.8%, Restaurants (+19.1%) and Lodging (+46.4%) also grew significantly.
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Luxury (+27.1%), Apparel (+16.0%) and Department Store (+14.0%) sectors saw double-digit growth.
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Amid economy reopening, in-store sales continued to rebound while e-commerce dropped Y/Y.



State-wise for Surf and Ski: Hawaii (+12.9%), Wyoming (+12.2%), Colorado (+11.0%), Florida (+9.7%), and Texas (+9.1%) topped the list of states with the strongest growth rates in March.
Recently, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said, "There has been plenty ink spilled on the recessionary risk signal embedded within the yield curve." The bank weighed in on why consumers may be still spending despite the scare headlines.
NY Fed Reserve's Survey of Consumer Expectations indicates U.S. consumer spending growth expectations for the year ahead reached a record high in February as inflation expectations creep higher.