April brought more than flowers; it boosted spending

After cutting back on spending during the long and unusually cold winter and early spring, Americans seemed to start spending when the weather turned nice in May.

According to Atlanta-based payment processor First Data, retail spending grew 1.7 percent in May compared to a 1.3 percent increase in April. Overall spending was up 4.2 percent in May, up from 4.1 percent the month before.

That’s good news for the American economy, 70 percent of which is made up consumer spending.

The big winner in First Data’s statistics: home and travel. Hotel spending grew 9.3 percent, a 12-month high, while gas stations saw growth of 3.6 percent. Building supplies spending grew 6.7 percent in May while Americans invested 1.4 percent more on home furnishings.

“A number of factors, including normalized weather, pent-up demand, falling unemployment and rising home prices supported consumers’ willingness to spend in May,” said Krish Mantripragada, senior vice president of information and analytics solutions for First Data.

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