US retail sales ROSE 7.6% before Christmas as steep discounts lured Americans strapped by inflation

U.S. retail sales rose 7.6 percent between Nov 1 and Dec 24, which encompasses a majority of the holiday season, as steep discounts lured deal-hungry consumers, a Mastercard report showed on Monday.

The increase is higher than the 7.1 percent growth Mastercard had forecast in September, when it anticipated consumers would pull purchases to October in the hunt for early deals.

However, this year's holiday retail sales growth is less than the 8.5 percent increase last year as decades-high inflation, rising interest rates and the threat of a recession turned consumers cautious.

Retailers including Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc in the United States offered large discounts during the holiday season to get rid of excess stock and bring back inventories to normal levels.

That led to strong demand for everything from toys to electronics during the five-day-long period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

However, sales of electronics dropped 5.3 percent over the broader roughly two-month period, according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report.

But sales in the apparel and restaurants categories, rose 4.4 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, helping boost the overall number.

Online sales jumped 10.6 percent in the period, slightly less than the 11 percent increase last year, the Mastercard report said.

Meanwhile, during the cyber week, total retail sales had jumped about 11 percent, a separate Mastercard SpendingPulse report in late November showed.

Mastercard SpendingPulse measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment. It excludes automotive sales.

Consumers spent a record $9.12 billion this year on Black Friday and another record $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest US online shopping day ever.

Shoppers hunted down the latest games, electronics and toys for the holidays, with Black Friday online spending up 2.3 percent from last year and Cyber Monday sales increasing by 5.8 percent, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

The report found the hottest products for Black Friday included the Xbox Series X game console, merchandise for the children's TV show Bluey, copies of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II game, drones and Apple Macbooks.

On Cyber Monday, Lego was the most sought-after product, followed by the playstation 5 game console, Hot Wheels brand toys, copies of Madden NFL 23 and smart watches.

While retailers started promotions and discount offers as early as October to foster more sales, inflation-weary shoppers had largely put off their holiday shopping until the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday in hopes of finding the best deals.

Inflation is one of the metrics used by the US Federal Reserve to gauge the health of the economy. 

Since 2012, the Federal Reserve has targeted a 2 percent inflation rate for the US economy and may make changes to monetary policy if inflation is not within that range. 

A notable time for inflation was the early 1980's during the recession. Inflation rates went as high as 14.93 percent, causing the Federal Reserve to take dramatic action.

In its most recent report the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a 0.1 percent increase to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) in Nov.

 This comes after it increased 0.4 percent in October. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 7.1 percent before seasonal adjustment.