Retail sales in U. S registered a unexpected climb in February despite falling car demand amidst trouble at auto maker Toyota MotorCorp and snowstorms that handicapped the East Coast for days.

The positive performance also extended hopes that the recovery from the Great Recession is grabbing pace.

Retail sales posted a jump last month by 0.3%, the Commerce Department revealed Friday.

However, economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had estimated a 0.3% slip in February sales. With the Super Bowl early in the month, electronic store sales witness a rise.

Moreover, consumer spending marked a rise 70% of demand in the U. S. economy. The surprising increase moved Macroeconomic Advisers to nudge their forecast for first-quarter gross domestic product growth way up, by four-tenths to 3.1%.

"It's nothing you want to get too excited about," Mr. Brown, of Raymond James & Associates, said of Friday's data. "Spending's still continuing at a moderate pace. We are really going to need some job growth."

Excluding sales of gasoline and cars, other retailers' sales registered a 0.9% rise last month, marking the biggest gain in three months.