US retail sales were flat for the month of June while May sales were revised to show an increase of 0.3%, according to data from the US Census Bureau, signaling the consumer is stronger than some on Wall Street had initially believed. Will this impact the Federal Reserve's next interest rate policy decision?

Citi senior global economist Robert Sockin joins The Morning Brief to give insight into the retail sales for June and what it means for the state of the consumer and the Fed moving forward.

"What this report shows is that the consumer is holding in there well, and maybe is not spending at the heady pace that we saw in the second half of last year, but is certainly not falling off a cliff. And I think for the Fed, this will take some urgency off of easing rates, out of fears that, the economy may be slowing down more sharply," Sockin tells Yahoo Finance. "So I think they're going to still signal at the July meeting this September cut is very likely given progress on inflation, but the economy continues to holdup well. They can afford to be patient..."

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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino