Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — American consumers are finally coming out of hiding. After months of penny-pinching amid the recession, new figures showing an improving job market, rising factory output and increased retail sales suggest that consumers are no longer restricting their budgets to necessities such as food and medicine.
They are starting to buy clothes, jewelry and even cars again.
Total industry sales are predicted to increase up to 10 percent compared with the same period a year ago, which would make March the seventh consecutive month of growth, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry group.
The New York Times
