AFP, Washington :
American consumers dipped deeper into their pockets in July, increasing spending for the sixth month in a row and getting the third quarter off to a healthy start, the government reported Wednesday.
Sales rose sharply at clothing stores, restaurants, bars and even long-suffering department stores, the Commerce Department said in a monthly report.
Motorists also bought more gasoline at the height of the summer driving season.
The increases should support continued robust economic growth in the third quarter, which economists say is still likely to be much slower than it was in the second.
Overall retail sales rose 0.5 percent for the month to $507.5 billion, overshooting analyst forecasts, which had called for a token 0.1 percent increase.
This put sales up a solid 6.4 percent over July of last year.
