Consumer Spending Rises 3.6% in Holiday Season

MasterCard Advisors’ report on retail sales found a 3.6% increase over the prior year in the 2009 holiday shopping season–November 1 through December 24–paced by a 15.5% increase in online sales. In 2008, retail sales in the same period declined 5.5% to 8%, according to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which excludes car and gasoline sales, but includes “aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check,” according to a company description of the report.

The release accompanying the report pointed out that while six out of ten sectors showed positive sales growth in the period, there was one additional shopping day in the season this year, which could “decrease the season’s year over-year-growth statistics by anywhere from 2% to 4%.”