Thu Sep 11, 12:25 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales excluding cars rose in August but at a slower pace, as high gasoline and food prices cut into spending on other goods and services, a private report released on Thursday showed.Consumer spending without autos rose 0.4 percent last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, less than the 1 percent increase in July, said SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, an arm of MasterCard Worldwide (MA.N).
"People are focusing on the essentials which are going up and up," said Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research at MasterCard Advisors.
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