The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that retail sales surged 3.0% last month.
Sales jumped to $697.0 billion after two months of contraction, said a Commerce Department report Wednesday, markedly higher than analysts expected.
The drop in sales in the prior two months was blamed on the front-loading of holiday shopping, which economists said had not been fully adjusted for by the model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data.
January sales at auto and other vehicle dealers provided a boost, jumping 6.4 percent from December to January.
Also robust were sales at department stores, which surged 17.5 percent, while that at restaurants and bars spiked 7.2 percent, the report said.
Data for December was unrevised to show sales dropping 1.1% as previously reported.
Treasury Department officials are looking for indications that consumers are pulling back, as they consider when to halt their campaign of rate increases.
This report was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.