U.S. retail and food sales continued to rise in March, adding to a string of positive economic data, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Monday.

The department said the combined retail and food services gained 0.8 percent to seasonally adjusted 411.1 billion U.S. dollars in March from the previous month.

The figure represented a 6.5-percent increase from a year earlier, said the department.

Excluding autos, retail and food services sales in March stood at 338.1 billion dollars, up 0.8 percent from February and up 6.1 percent from March 2011.

Consumer spending accounted for about 70 percent of the total activity in the world's largest economy, which is on track of recovery from the worst recession in decades.