US retail sales ended 2003 with a smaller-than- expected rise in December, government data showed yesterday.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.5 per cent in the month to $325.04 billion, less than half the revised 1.2 per cent gain in November.
The retail numbers were weaker than anticipated, but the closely watched Philadelphia Federal Reserve survey of factories in the mid-Atlantic region showed the laggard manufacturing sector starting to hum.
The Fed bank said its monthly gauge of its region's industry jumped to 38.8 in January from a revised 30.3 in December. It was the index's highest level since January 1984.
Earlier yesterday the New York Fed said its two-year-old Empire Manufacturing Survey rose to a record 39.2 in January, the ninth straight increase.