WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. retail and food services sales posted a slight increase in November after a decline in October, fresh evidence that Americans spent more in the holiday shopping season, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Thursday.
The department said the combined retail and food services sales in November rose 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted 412.4 billion U.S. dollars in November. The figure was 3.7 percent above the level a year ago.
Excluding autos, retail and food services sales in November totaled 336.8 billion dollars, virtually the same as in October and 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier.
Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. U.S. economic growth in the third quarter this year was revised up to 2.7 percent annually from an initial estimate of 2 percent, Commerce Department figures showed.
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