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U.S. retail sales increased in April, suggesting consumer spending is holding up in the face of economic headwinds including inflation and high borrowing costs. The value of retail purchases rose 0.4% after an upwardly revised 0.7% decrease in March, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday. Excluding autos and gasoline, sales increased 0.6%. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation. While the overall figure came in below the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, the gain in sales excluding autos and gasoline topped expectations. Seven out of 13 retail categories rose last month, including advances at auto dealers, general merchandise outlets and online merchants. The advance in April sales suggests low unemployment and steady wage growth are supporting demand for merchandise.

Total consumer debt rose to an all-time high in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with increases to mortgage balances, auto loans and student loans putting debt at a record level, The Hill reported. Consumer debt rose to more than $17 trillion for the first time ever, according to the data released by the New York Fed. The total represented a $148 billion increase from the previous quarter and a $1.2 trillion surge from last year. The rise in debt was spurred on by a $121 billion climb in mortgage balances in the U.S., bringing total mortgage debt to just over $12 trillion. It was the most substantial growth in any category. Auto loans increased by $10 billion over last quarter, totaling $1.56 trillion. Student loan debt increased moderately, to $1.6 trillion. Credit card debt remained flat, however, staying at $986 billion. The rise in household debt comes as federal officials have continued raising interest rates as part of their fight to tame inflation. This month, the Federal Reserve again hiked interest rates by 0.25 percentage points despite fears of a recession, bringing rates to between 5 and 5.25 percent.

As U.S. health care costs continue reaching enormous levels, many Americans have turned to medical credit cards as a way to finance their medical bills, YahooFinance.com reported. A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), however, is warning about the high fees and costs that come with those cards. “The growing promotion and use of medical cards and installment loans can increase the financial burden on patients who may pay more than they otherwise would pay and may compromise medical outcomes,” the report stated. “When people are unable to pay their medical bills, research shows this can deter them from seeking needed health care in the future. The use of medical cards and installment loans, and their promotion by medical providers, has ripple effects on the broader cost of health care, consumer well-being, and the economy.” An estimated 41% of Americans are grappling with medical debt of some kind. Medical credit cards typically offer deferred interest payment periods for many of these charges. Between 2018 and 2020, however, people paid $1 billion in these payments for charges, according to the CFPB findings, on top of $23 billion in overall expenses. The total fees vary by credit score as well. For example, people with credit scores below 619 incurred interest for roughly 34% of their health care purchases, with the CFPB report noting that those with lower credit scores may be more likely to incur interest since they’re also more likely to have shorter periods before being charged deferred interest.

A Republican senator accused President Joe Biden of “mortgaging our country’s financial health” by extending a pause in student loan payments while he pursues a plan to cancel some of the loan debt, though he acknowledged his measure to block the proposal does not have the votes, Bloomberg News reported. Cassidy, along with fellow Senate Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Joni Ernst of Iowa, introduced a resolution to overturn the president’s student loan forgiveness plan through a procedure that allows Congress to override federal regulations lawmakers disapprove of while avoiding a filibuster. Biden’s program to forgive as much as $20,000 per borrower has faced multiple court challenges and is currently suspended pending a Supreme Court ruling. The program is limited to individuals who make less than $125,000 a year and $250,000 for households. With the Democrats’ 51-49 Senate majority, Cassidy’s measure would require some Democratic support to pass. He said there was no timeline for when it would come to the Senate floor and that he had not spoken with any Democrats about possibly supporting it. He suggested Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent, as one of the people he might approach.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on May 4 published a report on high-cost specialty financial products, such as medical credit cards, that are sold to patients as a way to alleviate the growing costs of medical care, according to a CFPB press release. Patients are typically offered these products in a medical provider’s office even when their insurance may cover the procedure or they qualify for a hospital’s reduced or no-cost financial assistance program. The report finds that these specialty products are typically more expensive for patients than other forms of payment, including conventional credit cards, with interest rates often reaching above 25%. These products can add, instead of remove, the financial stress that comes with medical bills, including decreased access to credit, costly and lengthy collection litigation, and an increased likelihood of bankruptcy.

Fewer than half of working-age Americans have any retirement savings, according to Census data for 2020, The Hill reported. Savings rates rise with age, but only to a point. In the 55- to –64-year-old boomer age group, 58 percent of Americans own retirement accounts. A newly minted retiree of 65 can now expect to live 20 more years, on average, according to Social Security projections. Without a retirement account, most retirees count on Social Security. The average monthly Social Security check to a retired worker is around $1,800. The average household run by an over-65 American spends more than $4,000 a month. Yet, “many people go into retirement thinking that Social Security is going to provide for them,” said Josh Hodges, chief customer officer for the National Council on Aging. The average retirement account held just over $100,000 at the close of 2022, according to a Fidelity analysis. The median baby-boom household isn’t doing much better, with $134,000 in retirement savings in 2019, the most recent federal data. That’s about one-third of the average retirement savings in that age group, $408,420, a figure inflated by the super-rich. And most retirement nest eggs are much smaller now than a year ago. By Fidelity’s estimate, the average retirement account lost one-fifth of its value in 2022, dwindling from $135,600 to $104,000. Among retirees, the average savings account dwindled from $192,000 to $171,000 in 2022, according to a survey by Clever Real Estate. The share of retirees without any savings jumped from 30 percent to 37 percent.

Inflation is slowing, a fresh reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred index showed, but costs continue to climb rapidly after stripping out volatile food and fuel — which shows that price pressures retain staying power and it could be a long road back to normal, the New York Times reported. The Personal Consumption Expenditures index climbed by 4.2 percent in the year through March, down notably from 5.1 percent in the year through February. But after stripping out food and fuel prices, a closely watched “core” index held nearly steady last month. That measure rose by 4.6 percent over the year, compared with 4.7 percent in the previous reading — a figure that was revised up slightly. The data provide further evidence that inflation is moderating, but that the process remains bumpy and could take a long time to fully play out. Fed officials have raised interest rates sharply over the past year to make money more expensive to borrow and slow demand, and those moves are only slowly trickling through the economy and weighing down price increases. The central bank meets on May 3 to make its next policy decision, and officials are widely expected to raise rates by a quarter percentage point to just above 5 percent. Markets will be just as focused on what they signal for the future: Central bankers forecast in March that they might stop lifting interest rates after their next adjustment. Both incoming price and wage data and financial news could inform whether they feel comfortable hitting pause.