Finance expert Mike Periu on the low retail numbers for this year’s holiday shopping season.
U.S. Holiday Sales
Retail sales during the holiday season ending December 25th grew at a mediocre 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, the data tracking and analysis division of MasterCard. This is one-third of the the growth rate experienced in 2011 which was in itself a disappointing year. Some analysts believe that retailers should be pleased despite the low-growth number considering the fiscal cliff uncertainty, Hurricane Sandy and the school shooting in Connecticut, all of which contributed to depressing consumer enthusiasm for shopping. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index is registering its lowest level since July.
About Mike Periu
Mike is a seasoned executive with experience in small business finance and management. He is the founder of Proximo, LLC a leading provider of corporate, consumer and small business education and training services with an emphasis on finance and technology.
Mike Periu is also a leading national voice for individual empowerment through financial education and entrepreneurship. He has been interviewed over 500 times in national and international media, including NBC, Univision, CNN en español, Telemundo, HITN, TVE, RTE, SBS, MegaTV and others.
Mike writes regularly for American Express OpenForum, Yahoo! Finanzas and is a Huffington Post contributor.
Mike has degrees in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University. He is on the Board of Directors of the Council for Economic Education and was a Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation’s Labs for Enterprise Creation.
