Import volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to grow 1.8 percent in December over the same month last year, and the year should end with an increase of 2.3 percent over 2012, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

The National Retail Federation issued says worker safety has been boosted in garment factories in Bangladesh, yet notes that greater effort is needed.

President Obama didn't mention the word "retail" a single time in his State of the Union address. But retailers could nonetheless be widely impacted by proposals put forth in the annual speech to Congress, ranging from promises to create jobs and grow the economy to a plan to increase the federal minimum wage that is drawing headlines this morning.

With a tentative contract deal reached with East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers - though a key West Coast agreement remains unsettled - import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 8.5 percent in February over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

The National Retail Federation released its 2013 economic forecast, projecting retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) will increase 3.4 percent*, slightly less than the preliminary 4.2 percent growth seen in 2012. The subdued forecast comes on the heels of a holiday season that went head-to-head with Washington's political wrangling over fiscal concerns, shifting consumers' spending plans downward. In the end, holiday sales in 2012 grew 3.0 percent.