Michigan Retailers Association/Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Michigan Retail Index August 2007 results Index figures dating to July 1994 are available at www.retailers.com/news/retailindex.html August Performance Retailers reporting increased, decreased or unchanged sales, inventory, prices, promotions and hiring compared to the same month a year ago (numbers in parentheses indicate July results) % Increased % Decreased % No Change Index* Responses Sales 42 (46) 36 (32) 20 (13) 52.4 (55.3) 120 (101) Inventory 31 (27) 24 (32) 40 (28) 46.8 (41.9) 116 (96) Prices 29 (28) 6 (8) 59 (56) 59.5 (56.3) 115 (102) Promotions 24 (28) 8 (7) 62 (54) 54.7 (55.9) 115 (98) Hiring 12 (12) 7 (15) 77 (62) 50.5 (42.9) 118 (98) Outlook for Next 3 Months Retailers expecting increased, decreased or unchanged sales, inventory, prices, promotions and hiring compared to the same period a year ago (numbers in parentheses indicate July results) % Increased % Decreased % No Change Index* Responses Sales 54 (49) 18 (20) 24 (20) 65.2 (59.6) 118 (98) Inventory 38 (31) 22 (25) 32 (32) 52.5 (45.3) 113 (97) Prices 32 (38) 7 (4) 53 (47) 59.2 (62.3) 113 (98) Promotions 44 (38) 7 (7) 44 (45) 62.9 (59.9) 116 (99) Hiring 15 (13) 9 (12) 70 (59) 49.8 (43.9) 115 (93) August Sales Performance & Outlook for Next 3 Months, by Region (the first number indicates sales performance for the month; the number in parentheses indicates outlook for the next three months) % Increased % Decreased % No Change North 35 (35) 55 (30) 10 (35) West 53 (65) 26 (12) 21 (23) Central 42 (58) 26 (15) 26 (21) East 25 (50) 37 (37) 38 (13) Southeast 43 (51) 38 (16) 16 (24) Question of the Month How does your Christmas ordering/buying compare with last year? More 11.5% Less 30.3% Same 58.2% Have you completed your Christmas ordering/buying? Yes 28.1% No 71.9%*Seasonally adjusted diffusion index. A diffusion index, which is the sum of the percent of respondents indicating increase and half the percent indicating no change, is calculated and then seasonally adjusted using the U.S. Census Bureau's X-11 Seasonal Adjustment procedure. Index values above 50 generally indicate an increase in activity, while values below 50 indicate a decrease.
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