Americans stepped up their spending at retailers, restaurants, and auto dealers last month, a sign of consumer resilience as the holiday shopping season begins amid painfully high inflation and rising interest rates.The government said Wednesday that retail sales rose 1.3 percent in October from September, up from a flat reading in September from August. The increase was led by car sales and higher petrol prices. Still, excluding cars and petrol, retail spending rose a solid 0.9 percent last month.Strong car sales may have been supercharged by the arrival of Hurricane Ian in late September, which destroyed up to 70,000 vehicles, according to economists at TD Securities.
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