US retail sales plunged in April following March surge ahead of tariffs

US retail sales slowed in April as President Donald Trump’s tariffs weighed on American consumers, who pulled forward some of their spending into March ahead of the duties, Yahoo Finance reports.

According to Census Bureau data, headline retail sales rose 0.1% last month, beating economists' expectations of flat growth. The modest gain followed a much stronger 1.7% increase in March.

Sales, excluding volatile categories, fell 0.2% after a 0.5% gain in March, missing economists' projections of a 0.3% increase, according to the government report.

Retail sales, stripping out autos and gas, rose 0.2% in April, falling short of the 0.3% consensus forecast and lagging far behind a 1.1% surge in March.

Michael Pearce of Oxford Economics notes that the slowdown in US consumer spending is now becoming clearly visible. He expects retail sales to keep declining in the coming months, first due to front-loading, and then from tariff-driven price increases.