Weekly US retail sales growth picked up modestly in the latest Redbook report, with the year-over-year index rising to 6.4% on 17 March 2026, up from 6.2% previously. The data, which compare sales in the current month to the same month a year earlier, suggest a slight strengthening in consumer spending momentum.
The Redbook index tracks same-store sales at large general merchandise retailers and is often used as a high-frequency gauge of the health of US consumer demand. The current 6.4% annual increase indicates that retailers are seeing somewhat faster growth than in the prior month, when sales were up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis.
Because both the current and previous readings measure changes against the same month a year earlier, the uptick points to a modest but notable improvement in underlying retail trends. Market participants and analysts may view the continued solid growth in Redbook sales as a supportive signal for overall US consumption, a key driver of the country’s economic activity.
