Retail sales increased for the fourth consecutive month in November

Shopping mall decorated for the holidays.
(Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Retail sales rose a lukewarm and modest 0.3 percent in the month of November, as consumers began their holiday spending but at a slower rate than before given the inflation plaguing the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Sales were also up 18.2 percent last month from a year earlier, "showing low unemployment, rising wages and savings from stimulus payments are giving Americans the capacity to spend more this year," even when rising prices are taken into account.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.