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Shoppers walk past a retail shop at Somerset Collection shopping mall in Troy, Michigan.
This reading on consumer spending is an important indicator of how healthy the economy is.
"Anemic economic growth over the past two quarters raised fears of a near-term economic slowdown - or worse," wrote Nationwide chief economist David Berson in a note.
"Data in hand for the second quarter suggest that these fears were exaggerated," he said, with real GDP expected to rebound in the second quarter.
"Consumer spending is leading the way, as real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose at an annualized rate of 8.0 percent in April - one of the strongest monthly gains in the past decade."
Economists forecast that advance retail sales rose 0.3% month-on-month, according to Bloomberg. That would be down from 1.3% in April, a spike that was the largest relative to expectations in more than three years.
Excluding auto sales, they forecast that sales rose by 0.4%. And, core retail sales, excluding autos and gas, are expected at 0.3%.
The retail sales control group, which feeds into GDP, is expected at 0.3%.
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