Retail sales in America rose last month, signaling that a deepening real estate slump and elevated food and fuel costs are slowing rather than stopping consumers, economists said ahead of a government report this week.

Purchases rose 0.2% after dropping 0.9% in May, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey before a Commerce Department report today. Other reports may show prices increased in July, according to the survey.

Income gains are helping Americans cope with high energy costs and less access to credit, keeping spending from crumbling, economists said. The Federal Reserve last week maintained that inflation was its biggest concern even as policy makers acknowledged that risks to growth had increased.

“The consumer is being cautious in the face of a weak housing market and financial market uncertainties,” an economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., Brian Bethune, said. “These overall conditions are expected to keep the growth of consumer spending fairly subdued for the second half of 2007.”

Retail sales excluding motor vehicles increased 0.4%, after a 0.5% decline in June, according to the Bloomberg survey.