Retail sales rise faster than expected in October even as inflation pushes prices higher

U.S. shoppers accelerated their level of spending in October even as the prices of goods jumped at their fastest pace since the 1990s, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on goods ranging across categories from autos to sporting goods and food and gas, increased 1.7% for October, compared with 0.8% the previous month.

Excluding autos, sales also increased 1.7%, according to the Census Bureau advance estimate.

The two numbers were above the Dow Jones estimates of 1.5% for the headline print and 1% for the…