Mubasher: Initial reading indicated that US retailers saw a seasonally adjusted 0.4% sales growth in August, a sign that Americans were still boosting their spending.

This came lower than a healthy gain of 0.8% recorded in the upwardly revised reading for July.

Retail sales, a gauge of purchases at stores, at restaurants and online, recorded $526.1 billion last August, rising from a revised $524.2 billion in the previous month, the US Census Bureau said on Friday.

This marked the sixth monthly sales increase in a row.

Stripping out automobiles, the so-called core retail sales saw no change during the month, while they climbed by 3.5% year-on-year.

On an annualised basis, total retail sales climbed by 4.1% last August.

Non-store retailers saw a sales growth of 16% year-on-year last month, while sales at motor vehicles and auto parts dealers climbed by 6.8% from last year.

Total sales during the period between June and August climbed by 3.7% year-on-year.

By 12:34 pm GMT, the US dollar index fell by 0.19% to 98.13.