Back-to-school And Back-to-college Spending Expected To Reach $83.6 Billion: NRF

Back-to-school and back-to-college spending is expected to reach $83.6 billion in 2017, the National Retail Federation said on Thursday, a more than 10% increase from $75.8 billion last year. The NRF expects back-to-school spending for families with children in elementary and high school to reach $29.5 billion, up 8% from $27.3 billion last year. Deloitte said Wednesday that it expects back-to-school spending to reach $27 billion. The NRF expects college spending to reach $54.1 billion, beating the 2012 record of $53.5 billion. Electronics sales is forecast to reach $12.8 billion, followed by clothing ($8.0 billion) and food items ($7.5 billion). The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 10% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 9.4% for the period.