The Commerce Department announced on Tuesday the sales at U.S. retailers jumped 17.7 percent m-o-m in May, following a revised 14.7 percent m-o-m plunge in April (originally a 16.4 percent m-o-m tumble). That was the biggest monthly increase on record.

Economists had expected total sales would climb 8.0 percent m-o-m in May.

According to the report, sales of clothing and footwear (+188 percent m-o-m) rebounded the most, followed by furniture (+89.7 percent m-o-m), sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores (+88.2 percent m-o-m), electronics and appliances (+50.5 percent m-o-m), motor vehicles (+44.1 percent m-o-m), and gasoline stations (+12.8 percent m-o-m).

Excluding auto, retail sales rose 12.4 percent m-o-m in May after a revised 15.2 percent m-o-m decline in the previous month (originally a 17.2 percent m-o-m fall), much better than economists’ forecast of a 5.4 percent m-o-m gain.

In y-o-y terms, the U.S. retail sales declined 6.1 percent in May, following a revised 19.9 decrease in the previous month (originally a 21.6 percent drop).