U.S. retail sales rose by 0.9 percent in December, outstripping expectations and suggesting healthy consumer spending, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Sales growth were even stronger when automobile sales were excluded from calculation, rising a full 1.0 percent in December. In either case, the December gain was the largest since July and far outpaced analysts' expectations of a 0.6 percent rise. Sales for all of 2006 advanced by 6 percent from 2005, the smallest year-over-year gain since a 4.3 percent increase in 2003, the Commerce Department said. Sales at auto and parts dealers, gasoline stations, electronics and appliance stores, furniture and home furnishing stores all increased. At the same time, sales at building material and garden supplies stores declined 1.1 percent, reflecting a slowing housing market.
