AP: Holiday spending expected to rise in Ohio

The forecast, co-authored by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center and Focus on Ohio's Future — the research affiliate of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants — projects that Ohio shoppers are set to spend 0.8% more during the run-up to the holidays, making the total state sales for the 2019 holiday season more than $25.3 billion.

UC Economics Center researcher Megan Heare told the AP that sales figures for the 12 months ending in June 2019 show a 2.5% increase over the previous year, reflecting changing buying patterns among consumers in the state. The pattern shows that consumers are "spreading their purchases over the course of a year instead of this year's shorter holiday season." 

Journalists across the country and around the world regularly invite experts at UC and its affiliated research centers to weigh in on the latest trends in business.