Michigan Retail Index May 2007 results Index figures dating to July 1994 are available at www.retailers.com/news/retailindex.html May 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 April results) % Increased % Decreased % No Change Index* Responses Sales 47 (35) 32 (47) 19 (13) 54.1 (39.7) 139 (145) Inventory 27 (27) 30 (24) 39 (39) 46.5 (43.2) 136 (137) Prices 37 (32) 6 (8) 52 (52) 64.4 (56.8) 135 (141) Promotions 35 (37) 10 (8) 50 (49) 61.8 (60.4) 135 (143) Hiring 11 (9) 8 (12) 74 (67) 46.6 (41.7) 132 (134) 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 April results) % Increased % Decreased % No Change Index* Responses Sales 46 (38) 22 (27) 30 (29) 59.1 (49.8) 139 (143) Inventory 28 (22) 27 (33) 41 (37) 48.9 (38.0) 136 (140) Prices 36 (30) 5 (10) 54 (51) 65.6 (55.3) 135 (139) Promotions 45 (29) 3 (4) 47 (57) 70.9 (59.6) 135 (138) Hiring 5 (11) 7 (9) 81 (66) 46.2 (42.5) 132 (131) May 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 56 (48) 24 (28) 20 (24) West 41 (52) 48 (26) 11 (22) Central 41 (34) 28 (14) 31 (52) East 17 (33) 33 (33) 50 (34) Southeast 52 (52) 30 (19) 15 (26)*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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