Even if we ignore the 0.8% m/m drop in January's retail sales, since it was entirely due to a massive 9.3% m/m price-related slump in the value of gasoline station sales, non-gas sales were still only flat. Nevertheless, with lower gasoline prices leaving households with more to spend on other goods and services, the labour market on fire and consumer confidence back at its pre-recession level, we still expect to see a pick-up in the pace of underlying sales growth over the first half of this year.
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