According to Tuesday’s Commerce Department report, U.S. customers increased their purchasing in October despite the fact that goods prices rose at an unprecedented pace since 1990s.

Retail sales are a measurement of consumers’ spending on various goods, including autos, sporting goods, food, and gasoline. They increased by 1.7% in October compared to 0.8% last month.

The report also stated that sales increased by 1.5%, excluding autos Census Bureau advance estimate.

Both numbers are higher than the Dow Jones estimates at 1.5% for headline printing and 1% respectively for core sales growth.

The biggest relative increase in online shopping was 4%, which is 10.2% more than a year ago. In October, gasoline sales rose 3.9% due to rising prices at the pumps. Station sales have increased 46.8% year over year.

This news is coming after the consumer price index which measures a similar basket goods increased by 0.9% in October and 6.2% over the previous year. The year-overyear growth was the greatest since 1991. The CPI increased 0.6% month-over-month, even excluding energy and food, and was 4.6% annually.

However, the retail sales numbers — which are adjusted for seasonal variations but not for inflation — indicate consumers are willing to pay the higher prices.

A series of Congress-approved payments to address the pandemic have made it possible for American households to be flooded with cash. Spending totaled over $5 trillion. It included direct payments to millions of Americans as well as increased unemployment benefits. Most of these were terminated in September.

The third quarter saw savings total $1.6 trillion, which is a significant amount but not at the level of the pandemic peak. Sentiment surveys show that inflation worries are increasing.

According to Bank of America, spending has been steady, but credit card and debt outlays have increased 27% over the past two years.

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