WASHINGTON - American consumers spent their money in November at the slowest rate in five months, suggesting the economy might not grow quite as fast as expected in the fourth quarter.
Sales at U.S. retailers increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Consumers gravitated toward cars and home electronics and spent less at bars, restaurants and grocery stores, government data showed.
Excluding the volatile automobile sector, sales also rose 0.2 percent.
Economists were expecting stronger sales in light of robust demand for automobiles and a record increase in spending during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected retail sales to rise by 0.5 percent overall, or by 0.4 percent excluding the auto sector.
Peter Buchanan, an economist at CIBC World Markets, called retail sales a "fairly disappointing report" that could spur some firms to cut their estimates for fourth-quarter growth. The U.S. is projected to grow 3 percent in the final three months of 2011 based on the latest MarketWatch forecast.
Consumer spending accounts for as much as 70 percent of U.S. economic growth.
Other economists, such as Joshua Shapiro of MFR Inc., say revisions to prior retail-sales data show that consumer spending remains healthy. The increase in sales in October, for instance, was revised up to 0.6 percent from 0.5 percent, while September's data was revised up to 1.3 percent from 1.1 percent.
What's needed for the higher consumer spending, all economists agree, is faster job creation.
