U.S. retail sales rose in July after two months, mainly to show an increase in car sales figures. Total sales climbed by 0.4% over the previous month, as sales fell a revised 0.3%, said the Commerce Department. Excluding the impact of car sales in total retail sales increased by 0.2%. U.S. retail sales have ceased to be an important indicator of the health of the U.S. economy such as consumption about 70% of the U.S. economy seen. Sales in July totaled $ 362.7bn (£ 232.4bn), and were 5.9% higher than the same month last year.

Cars and car parts sales increased by 1.6% from June, while petrol sales grew by 2.3%. But sales of a number of other important areas, including clothing, electronics and furniture, all fell.Recent weeks have seen growing concerns about the strength of recovery in the U.S., and although the latest sales figures showed an increase, the increase was not as great as had been expected.
Last week showed that numbers of the U.S. economy cut 131 000 jobs in July, the second consecutive month that jobs have been lost. Earlier this month that the U.S. figures showed economic growth had slowed from April to June.

This contrasts with figures published on Friday, the euro zone economic recovery ads is gaining momentum. The German economy is mainly long strides forward, with its growing economy by 2.2% in the second quarter. The corresponding figure for the USA 0.6%.