Nominal final sales to domestic purchasers fell way, way below trend starting in late 2008.
Real Final Sales (Real GDP minus the inventory change) increased a whopping 7.1 percent.
Overall investment fell 5.7% and final sales of computers dropped by more than 20%.
Real final sales (real GDP minus inventory changes) were up only 0.9 percent.
Real final sales in the third quarter were up 3.2 percent, above the headline real GDP number of 1.8 percent.
By definition, GDP is a summary of final sales for new goods and services and not of all economic activity.
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That, and not the final sales figures, may be the most important thing that comes out of this holiday shopping season.
Real final sales were up only 1.1 percent in the first quarter, far below the advertized 3.7 percent increase in real GDP.
Removing the inventory buildup left real final sales up at only a 1.1 percent annual rate, well below the satisfyingly round headline number of three percent.
By contrast, inventory liquidation actually pulled down the headline estimate in the third quarter, making it a stronger quarter in terms of real final sales than the fourth.
The first estimate of the 1st quarter real GDP growth, at 2.2 percent, appeared to be a weakening from the 4th quarter, but real final sales, at plus 1.6 percent, was stronger by half a percentage point.
As retailers know, Black Friday sales are not always an accurate harbinger of final holiday sales.
But the most important numbers will be the final 2011 sales figures.
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Still one cannot escape the fact that this marks the second successive quarter that the measure for final domestic sales were stronger, rising 2.5%.
At Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, spokesman Craig Clemmer said the season's final ticket sales figures are still being tallied, but it looks like the season will stand as one of the top five ever.
The competition between BMW and Mercedes-Benz for No. 1-selling luxury brand in the United States was nearly a dead heat through November, with the final outcome pending December sales results due Jan. 4.
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For example, the afore-mentioned merchandise sales during the final round of the PGA Championship on Aug. 12 and the Monday following the event resulted in the two highest sales days in the history of the store.
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Wolfson Microelectronics has forecast a strong start to the year after reporting a surge in sales in the final quarter of 2012.
Thursday will feature November durable goods orders, November personal income and spending, November new home sales and the final December University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey results.
Analysts also poured cold water on early recovery hopes, pointing that Compaq's sales for the final three months of 2001 and for the full year were down by 26% and 21% respectively.
On Wednesday, figures from data provider China Real Estate Information Corporation showed that in terms of floor area, housing sales in the final week of May rose 39.6% from a week earlier to 107, 200 square meters in Shenzhen, and 27.1% over the previous week to 185, 400 square meters in Shanghai.
November existing home sales data and the final revision to third-quarter GDP will be released on Wednesday.
The question then becomes which is the dominant explanation and thus the final and total effect on music sales.
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Shop sales dipped in the final quarter of 2012 but grew over the year as a whole, according to figures released by the Scottish government.
"Even small distortions of assessed prices may have a huge impact on the prices of crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels purchases and sales, potentially harming final consumers, '" the Commission said.
But Pacific Coast Capital would have final say over major decisions such as sales and new partnerships, according to Mr. Cestero.
Nokia, once itself the leading mobile phone manufacturer, reported on Thursday a return to profit in the final quarter of last year, with strong sales of its new Lumia smartphone, its first major product launch since the company teamed up with Microsoft.
Otherwise, layers of hidden sales taxes can get built into the final product or service the consumer buys.
Dominating this mid-tier, software-only realm is the Adobe (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ) digital editing application Premier, which has recently seen its market share dip from 55% to 53%, while Apple's Final Cut Pro has already cornered 30% of those sales.
Sales in China were 4% lower in the quarter after growing by 10% in the October-December period in 2011, while sales in struggling Europe fell 5% in the final quarter of the year.
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