Back-to-school shopping boosts August retail sales

Consumer spending rose modestly in August as shoppers opened their wallets for back-to-school shopping.

U.S. retail sales climbed 0.2% last month from July, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. July sales were also revised slightly higher to 0.7%, from a previous estimate of 0.6%.

The spending boost last month is a good sign for the upcoming holiday season, analysts said. It indicates that consumers are relatively unfazed by the recent stock market turmoil and by worries that many economies around the world are slowing down.

This week Federal Reserve policymakers are meeting and could decide to raise the benchmark interest rate. But modest job growth in August and rollicking global…