According to new data from the Commerce Department, consumer spending in the United States was up 0.8 percent in February – the biggest monthly increase recorded since last July.

While that is good news for many retail merchants, the report was also quick to note that the income of many Americans barely grew and the saving rate fell to the lowest point since 2010. This means that the improvement may have just been a temporary growth rather than a long-term trend.

"The report led economists to upwardly revise their economic growth estimates for the January-March quarter," Retailing Today reports. "Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, now expects annual growth for the first quarter to be around 2.5 percent, compared with earlier estimates of about 2 percent."

Additionally, many economists were quick to point out that rising gas prices may have contributed to the growth in retail sales, rather than the actual purchase of goods.

In other parts of the world, similar improvements were noted. For example, the Australia Bureau of Statistics recently reported that domestic retail sales improved 0.2 percent during February.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 8:43 am .