Restaurant sales will grow for the sixth consecutive year, reaching a record high of $709.2 billion in 2015, according to the National Restaurant Association’s latest Restaurant Industry Forecast, released Tuesday.
Buoyed by a steadily improving economy, industry sales will grow by about $26 billion, 3.8 percent, or 1.5 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. That would be the strongest rate of growth in three years, according to the forecast.
“With the economy slowly improving and national employment trending upward, signs are pointing in the right direction for restaurant industry growth,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the NRA, in a statement. “Certain components of the business climate remain a challenge, accelerating industry sales in some regions and putting a damper on them in others, but the overall industry is definitely in a better place now than several years ago.”
