Retail Sales Up Modestly in January Over 2009

New York, NY, Feb. 10, 2010–Retail sales rose for a third month in a row compared with a year earlier, according to MasterCard Advisor’s SpendingPulse.

Excluding cars, U.S. retail sales rose 3.6 percent from January 2009, according to SpendingPulse.

That increase followed a 4.8 percent gain in December and a 2.1 percent gain in November.

“It is a modest pace of spending,” said Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research for MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse.

“Consumers are not going back to their caves, but they are not spending aggressively either.”