Retail sales up 1.7% in March from February driven by a spike in gas prices due to the Iran war

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NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers accelerated their spending in March from February, but they spent most of their money at the gas pump. A spike in gas prices due to the Iran war, now in its eighth week, resulted in a hefty 1.7% gain in retail sales in March after a revised 0.7% increase in February, according to the Commerce Department’s report on Tuesday. The report marks the first read on spending to capture the effects of the Iran war. Excluding gas prices, the number was a slim 0.6%, helped in part