By Judith Russell, Sourcing Journal Online
Consumer spending on apparel and footwear continued to decelerate in July, according to the most current data released by
the Department of Commerce, rising by only 0.6% on a 12-month smoothed basis, its smallest monthly increase in more than four years.
The rise was much lower than the increase in total goods spending, which rose by 3.7%, and non durables spending, which increased by 2.5%.
Apparel and footwear spending growth has slowed from a peak of 6 percent in March 2012 to where it is today-not even keeping pace with inflation.
Footwear spending fared a bit better than apparel in July, rising 1.4% compared to 0.5% for garments only
Apparel spending’s increase was its smallest since March 2010. July was the third straight month of decelerating growth
for footwear spending. Read the entire article with additional graphs at “Sourcing Journal Online.com”
