Mubasher: Preliminary reading suggested that US retailers saw sales rise in June, after a huge gain in May, while indicating that the strength of the country’s economic growth, official data showed on Monday.

Retail and food services sales gained 0.5% month-on-month to $506.8 billion in the sixth month of the year, with a yearly increase of 6.6%, the US Census Bureau reported.

June’s retail sales increase matched the 0.5% forecast of analysts polled by MarketWatch.

Moreover, retail trade sales went up 0.3% month-on-month in June and 6.4% year-on-year, according to official data.