Retail Sales Up, Showing Consumer Confidence
With more than $487 million in sales in January, the year began 8.8% higher than January 2018 and 8.3% higher than January 2017.
“Retail sales are a good barometer of consumer confidence and it is very encouraging to see retail sales continuing to rebound,” says Gregg Gothreaux, President and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. “We have seen improvement in indicators across the board in Lafayette, indicating that the economy has started to emerge from the downturn. Taxable sales is a concurrent indicator that adjusts at the same time as the overall economy.”
Total taxable sales began the year up in all municipalities compared to 2018— Lafayette (5.2%) Broussard (19.1%), Carencro (20.6%), Duson (14.2%), Scott (6.3%), Youngsville (23.8%) and unincorporated areas of the parish (18.9%).
Sales tax collection numbers are gathered by the Lafayette Parish School System.