Home Depot store aisle Sales at building supply retailers, such as Home Depot, posted the strongest monthly increase in six years. (Photo: Home Depot)

WASHINGTON, DC—Retail sales continued a three-month streak of growth, with the Commerce Department reporting Friday that sales rose in June to a seasonally adjusted $457 billion, up 0.6% from the previous month. The Wall Street Journal reported that a survey of economists had projected a 0.1% increase over May.

June’s overall month-to-month increase, which rises to 0.7% when sales of cars and gasoline are excluded, followed gains of 1.3% in April and 0.2% in May. Sales in June were up 2.7% from a year ago, while the April-to-June period was up 2.6% from the same period in 2015.

Helping propel June’s gains were sales in the building-supply sector, which rose 3.9% from May. That represented the strongest monthly increase in the sector since April 2010. Year to date, sales in the category are up 7.7% from the year prior. Other categories that posted monthly increases above the national average included online channels, up 1.1%, and sporting goods, which gained 0.7% over May.

The retail sales figures for June, which followed the Labor Department’s report earlier this month of a strong rebound in hiring after a lackluster May, were “supportive of our outlook for a consumer-driven bounce back in second quarter growth,” the WSJ quoted Barclays economist Rob Martin as saying. Separately, the Federal Reserve reported that US industrial output rose 0.6% in June after declining 0.3% in May.

The stronger economic data may give the Fed encouragement in considering another interest rate hike this year. Reuters quoted Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, as saying the jobs and retail reports “might increase the odds of a September rate increase at the margin.” He added, however, that the Fed is “clearly in zero rush to tighten policy.”

One area in which the positive sales numbers bode well is retail occupancy. In a Research Brief earlier this week, Marcus & Millichap noted that retailers added 192,000 positions in the first half of the year, with many national chains continuing to build an online presence to complement physical stores.

“This year, retailers will absorb 67 million square feet of space to lower the national vacancy rate and support growth in the average rent of 2.8%,” according to Marcus & Millichap. “Additionally, growing needs for warehouse space to service online operations will contribute to a 40-basis-point dip in the national industrial vacancy rate to 5.9%.