Nation's largest trade group: holiday sales rose a better-than-expected 4%

Sales for the 2024 holiday shopping season turned out to be robust and better than expected, as easing inflation on merchandise drove shoppers to buy, according to the nation’s largest retail trade group. Holiday sales in November and December rose 4% to $994.1 billion compared with the previous year, according the National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade group in the U.S. For the holiday period in 2023, sales rose 3.9% compared with the previous year. The holiday sales growth was above the group’s expectations for a 2.5% to 3.5% increase for the period. It was also higher than the average annual holiday increase of 3.6% from 2010 to 2019 before the pandemic supercharged consumer spending.