Alina Selyuk

Compared to last April, overall retail spending grew almost 5%.

So it does reflect both the fact that prices rose and people bought more things.

Some people did get a bit of a boost on their tax refunds, so they went out to shop and eat.

Spending at restaurants and bars did increase 2.7% compared to last year.

But here's by far the biggest number.

Spending at gas stations increased nearly 21%.

This kind of number is very rare to see on this government report.

It's driven by gasoline prices that have jumped sharply since the U.S.

began its war with Iran.

And the effect on energy prices has become a big driver of inflation.

The government this week reported consumer prices in April rose 3.8 percent from a year ago.

Alina Seluk, NPR News.

This is NPR News in Washington.

The U.S.

government took about two months to set up an online system where companies that paid the illegal tariffs could request their money back.

That's an estimated $166 billion, though not all of it is being processed in this first wave.

U.S.

Customs has also acknowledged that it did reject more than a third of refund claims for technical and data errors, though importers can refile.

As of about two weeks ago, the agency said it had accepted claims covering about a fifth of all the shipments that are due refunds.

Nike is the latest big company to face a class action lawsuit that argues shoppers should get a cut of any refunds because they paid the costs through higher prices.