US retail sales rise boosts recovery hopes

US retail sales rose despite a bad month for weather and the car industry

US retail sales showed a surprise rise in February as consumers braved extreme bad weather to get to the shops.

The US Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.3% last month, whereas forecasts had predicted a fall of 0.2%.

The rise, the biggest since November, fuelled hopes that economic recovery is gaining momentum and helped to boost shares on Wall Street.

Parts of America were hit by major snow storms in February, sparking concerns that consumers would remain at home.

The overall gain in sales was held back by a 2% fall in car sales, reflecting in part the recall problems at Toyota.

Excluding cars, sales rose 0.8%, far better than the 0.1% rise outside of autos that economists had forecast.

Camilla Sutton, a senior strategist at Scotia Capital, said the sales figures were a further hint "that the US recovery is intact and ongoing".

"There's been a lot of worry about how the economy will transition from government spending to consumer spending and we're starting to see some evidence of that," she said.

US consumer spending has been slow as because high unemployment has squeezed household income, leading to worries that the economy's recovery from the worst downturn in seven decades could falter.

Higher consumer spending is vital for US recovery because it accounts for about 70% of economic activity.