US chain store sales rose modestly last week, helped by cool weather, back-to-school shopping and state sales tax holidays in Florida and Georgia, a report said on Tuesday.
Sales rose by 0.2 percent in the week ended July 31, matching a 0.2 percent rise in the previous week, the International Council of Shopping Centres and UBS said in a joint report. Compared with the same week a year ago, sales increased by 3.1 percent, a slowdown from the 3.8 percent pace of the preceding week.
ICSC maintained its forecast for July sales growth in a range of 3.0 percent to 4.0 percent, on a year-over-year basis.
"As we look toward August, ICSC continues to expect the overall outlook to remain positive as additional states begin to offer their sales tax holidays which will continue to help spur customer traffic over the coming weeks," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.