U.S. retail sales likely suffered a record drop in March as mandatory business closures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak depressed demand for a range of goods, setting up consumer spending for its worst decline in decades, Reuters reported. The report from the Commerce Department to be released today would come as millions of Americans are unemployed, and strengthen economists’ conviction that the economy is in deep recession. States and local governments have issued “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” orders affecting more than 90 percent of Americans to curb the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, and abruptly stopping the country. According to a Reuters survey of economists, retail sales probably plunged 8.0 percent last month, signaling the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992. Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in February.
