WREN Report: HF Store Sales Up, PPI Results Mixed

December 14, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in economic news on December 15, 2008 Furniture store sales, as expected, declined in October according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). On an annualized basis, sales for the month were $54.1 billion, down 2 percent from September. Measured against October 2007 figures, sales in furniture stores fell 11.2 percent.

Sales in home furnishings stores, which exclude furniture store sales, were $50.1 billion in October, an increase of 4 percent from September. Compared with October of last year, home furnishings store sales fell 11.3 percent.

Year-to-date sales in both store categories are off from the comparable 2007 period. For the first 10 months of 2008, furniture store sales were $49 billion, down 5.8 percent from last year. Home furnishings store sales declined 7.9 percent to $41.2 billion for the first ten months of the year.

The DOC estimate for combined furniture and home furnishings store sales for the first 10 months of 2008 is $90.2 billion, down 6.8 percent from the comparable 2007 period.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for manufacturing industries, not seasonally adjusted, stood at 169.53 in November, down 4.1 percent from October. November PPI for furniture and related products manufacturing was 175.6, up 0.7 percent compared with October and up 5.4 percent from November of last year.

PPI for furniture and home furnishings stores stood at 122.4 in November, down 0.1 percent from October and up 1.1 percent from November 2007.

PPI, tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), measures the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. PPI measures price changes from the perspective of the seller.

Weekly Review of Economic News (WREN) reports are summaries of recently-released economic statistical data that affect the home furnishings industry. WREN reports are compiled by HFB Research Editor Janice Chamberlain.