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WASHINGTON  U.S. retail sales rose in August from July because consumers paid college gas prices and bought added cars and trucks. They were added alert elsewhere, suggesting the anemic abridgement has fabricated abounding careful about spending.

Retail sales added a seasonally adapted 0.9 percent, the Commerce Administration said Friday. Gas base sales jumped 5.5 percent, the best in about three years and a absorption of aciculate amount increases. Appeal for autos added 1.7 percent.

Outside those categories, sales rose alone 0.1 percent. That's beneath July's 0.8 percent gain. Sales at accepted merchandise, accouterment and cyberbanking aliment fell. Sales at grocery stores, antic appurtenances aliment and online retailers were unchanged.

Gasoline sales are heavily afflicted by price, and auto sales represent above purchases. Excluding those categories offers added accuracy on consumers' alertness to spend.

"This has to go bottomward as a anemic report," said Paul Dales, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "Most of the spending in August was on articles that households accept to buy, such as gasoline, not items they like to buy, such as new TVs."

The retail sales address is the government's aboriginal attending anniversary ages at customer spending, which drives almost 70 percent of bread-and-butter activity. Customer spending has added at a apathetic clip this year. That has abject on the abridgement and kept businesses from hiring.

Higher gas costs additionally collection up customer prices by the best in three years, the Labor Administration said in a abstracted report. But excluding activity prices, aggrandizement was mild.

Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in August, the administration said. Gas prices added 9 percent and accounted for 80 percent of the increase. Outside aliment and energy, prices rose alone 0.1 percent.

Overall customer prices accept added 1.7 percent in accomplished year. That's able-bodied beneath the Federal Reserve's aggrandizement target.

Lower aggrandizement will acquiesce the Fed to stick with programs appear Thursday aimed at appropriation the economy. If the Fed were afraid that prices are ascent too fast, it ability accept to accession absorption rates.

On Thursday, the Federal Reserve said it would acquirement $40 billion of mortgage-backed balance a ages until the abridgement and job bazaar appearance signs of abiding improvement. Fed admiral additionally said they would accumulate concise absorption ante low, alike afterwards the dispatch of any bread-and-butter recovery.

Rising gas prices could accomplish consumers added alert about spending in the advancing months. Gas prices averaged $3.87 a gallon civic on Friday, 16 cents college than a ages ago and aloof 7 cents beneath the 2012 boilerplate high.

Automakers beforehand this ages appear the best sales in three years, afterwards seeing ascent appeal for auto trucks.

The government's retail sales abstracts assorted with letters from the nation's better retail chains. Abounding said things best up in August, apprenticed partly by back-to-school purchases. Sales at 18 retail chains rose aftermost ages by the best back March.

Sales at Ambition rose 4.2 percent and added 5.1 percent at Macy's. Gap Inc. acquaint a 9 percent jump in sales.

Employers added alone 96,000 jobs aftermost month, beneath the 141,000 added in July and far beneath the boilerplate assets of 226,000 in the aboriginal three months of the year.

The unemployment amount fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but alone because the cardinal of bodies in the assignment force shrank.

The abridgement is growing too boring to activation greater job gains. The abridgement broadcast at a 1.7 percent anniversary clip in the April-June quarter. That's bottomward from 2 percent in the aboriginal division and 4.1 percent in the final three months of aftermost year.