The slower consumption growth adds to recent data showing that the world's biggest economy is cooling gradually -- a trend likely to raise the central bank's confidence that it can soon begin cutting interest rates.
To ease demand and bring inflation back down sustainably, the Federal Reserve has rapidly lifted the benchmark lending rate and in recent months, held it at a decades-high level.
But in June, overall retail sales was $704.3 billion, virtually unchanged from May's figure, according to the Department of Commerce. Читать дальше...