(Washington) Retail sales fell 1.0% in March in the United States, partly due to lower gasoline prices, but it also shows that consumption is slowing, due to rising rates interest rate to curb high inflation.

Total spending was $691.7 billion in March, according to data released Friday by the US Commerce Department.

Analysts were anticipating a smaller decline of just 0.4%, according to Briefing.com consensus.

The decline in sales in February has also been revised to -0.2% instead of -0.4% initially announced.

Compared to March 2022, sales are nevertheless up by 2.9%. But this is due to higher prices, more than consumers filling their baskets more.

These figures are in fact not adjusted for the rise in prices, which therefore mechanically contributes to increasing the total amount of sales.

In detail, gas stations recorded the largest decline (-5.5%) in March. Department stores saw their sales fall 3.0%, while those of clothing stores fell 1.7%, and those of dealerships and other sellers of cars and automotive parts fell 1.6%.

On the other hand, sales on the Internet increased by 1.9%.

Inflation in the United States slowed to 5% year on year in March, the lowest in almost two years, according to the CPI index published on Wednesday.