February 19th, 2012 
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Americans rebounded from a weak holiday season and have stepped up spending in January on retail goods. The latest report by government on retail sales pointed to a slowly improving economy.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent last month.
The “retail sales data are better than they look, but they don’t suggest that consumption growth is about to set the economic recovery alight,” Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients.
A separate Commerce report showed business stockpiles rose 0.4 percent in December.
“The good news is that the strong January gain establishes that the consumer trend is not folding,” said Pierre Ellis, an economist at Decision Economics.
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