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The
increase is higher than the 7.1% growth Mastercard had forecast
in September, when it anticipated consumers would pull purchases
to October in the hunt for early deals.
However, this year's holiday retail sales growth is less than
the 8.5% increase last year as decades-high inflation, rising
interest rates and the threat of a recession turned consumers
cautious.
Retailers including Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc in the United
States offered large discounts during the holiday season to get
rid of excess stock and bring back inventories to normal levels.
That led to strong demand for everything from toys to
electronics during the five-day-long period between Thanksgiving
and Cyber Monday.
However, sales of electronics dropped 5.3% over the broader
roughly two-month period, according to the Mastercard
SpendingPulse report.
But sales in the apparel and restaurants categories, rose 4.4%
and 15.1%, respectively, helping boost the overall number.
Online sales jumped 10.6% in the period, slightly less than the
11% increase last year, the Mastercard report said.
Meanwhile, during the cyber week, total retail sales had jumped
about 11%, a separate Mastercard SpendingPulse report in late
November showed.
Mastercard SpendingPulse measures in-store and online retail
sales across all forms of payment. It excludes automotive sales.
(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Ann Maria Shibu in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Savio D'Souza)
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