According to the latest figures released, the total retail spending increased 1.1 per cent during the month of February compared to January.

Americans spent fastest in five months in February and experts say that even as half of the increase was due to higher gas prices, the increase in significant as the retail sales excluding gas purchases rose 0.6 per cent during the month over the previous month. The new report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed that the customers continued to increase spending even as there was a Social Security taxes in the country.

American retailer also recorded higher sales in February indicating improvement in the job market are helping consumers and the economy cope with the increase price of gas and higher taxes. The growth of 1.1 per cent is higher than estimated by economists in a Bloomberg survey and this shows that the retail spending is recovering despite higher taxes in the country and this might lead to a strong recovery.

The median forecast of 82 economists in the Bloomberg survey had predicted a growth of 0.5 per cent in retail sales in the US. The data from the Commerce Department revised the growth figure for January to 0.2 per cent from 0.1 per cent in the country.