Weekly chain store sales rise nearly 5%

New York City A report released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs said that U.S. chain-store sales rose 4.7% during the week ending April 3, compared with the year-ago period.

The weekly survey noted a 2.1% rise in sales from the previous week, citing warmer weather and the pending Easter weekend as factors which put consumers “in the mood to shop.”

Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist, noted that the calendar shift, bringing Easter a week earlier than last year, contributed to the strong year-on-year growth. As a result, ICSC adjusted its monthly forecast to reflect the calendar shift and now expects March sales to show an increase of 8% to 10% from March 2009.

Approximately six percentage points of growth were attributed to the calendar shift, Niemira said.