Holiday sales rose 4.1 percent

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FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 23, 2011 file photo, sale signs are displayed at a North Face store where a shopper browses the racks, in Freeport, Maine. Last-minute shoppers are hitting stores just before Christmas in a surge that is expected to top off an unexpectedly strong holiday shopping season. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Updated: February 14, 2012 10:15AM

Retail sales reports Thursday provided mixed messages about consumer spending: Holiday spending in November and December increased 4.1 percent, better than the retail industry’s projected 3.8 percent gain, but sales for December alone stalled out with a 0.1 percent gain from an 0.4 percent increase in November.

Yet the tiny gain in December lifted sales to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion — the second straight month sales topped $400 billion — and pushed the 2011 yearly total to a record $4.7 trillion, an increase of about 8 percent from 2010. That was the biggest percentage jump since 1999, according to U.S. Commerce Department data.

Even as retailers lured shoppers with deep discounts, the data showed consumers pulled back from their early holiday spending in order to pay their bills and start saving again, experts said. Because discount and department stores lowered prices, their sales edged down in December, while sales of autos, furniture and hardware items and spending at bars and restaurants increased, the U.S. Commerce Department said.

The National Retail Federation said Thursday that retail sales for November and December together totaled $471.5 billion. NRF’s measure for holiday sales excludes automotive dealers, gas stations and restaurants.

The overall 4.1 percent pace for the holiday 2011 season was less than the 5.2 percent increase for holiday 2010 but it was still above the 2.6 percent average over the past 10 years.

NRF upgraded its growth forecast to 3.8 percent in mid-December from the original 2.8 percent made in early October when the economy’s health looked more uncertain.

Consumers showed they will pull back quickly from an early holiday splurge while they are still cautious about jobs, the economy and home prices, experts said.

Contributing: AP