US Holiday Retail Sales Fell 2.8%: NRF

U.S. holiday retail sales fell 2.8 percent, the National Retail Federation said Wednesday, as a deepening recession crimped consumer spending and undermined the trade group's forecast that sales would rise.

The 2008 results mark the first decline since the NRF began tracking such figures in 1995.

"It was the perfect storm," said NRF spokesman Scott Krugman of the holiday season.

In September, the trade group said it expected holiday sales, or retail industry sales in the months of November and December, to increase 2.2 percent this year to $470.4 billion, which would have marked the weakest sales growth in six years.

The NRF developed its forecast during one of the most chaotic weeks in Wall Street history, marked by the failure of Lehman Brothers, the government bailout of insurer American International Group , and Merrill Lynch agreeing to be acquired by Bank of America .

While it said at the time that it had taken into account the volatile situation, the financial crisis that struck the United States in mid-September spurred a wave of job cuts and investment losses that prompted consumers to pull back even more sharply on spending.

In addition, winter storms ahead of Christmas kept many consumers from heading to stores to complete last-minute holiday shopping.

The NRF said initial 2008 holiday sales declined 2.8 percent to $447.5 billion.

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