Week 7 of stimulus: $7 billion sent out

All eyes on retail sector

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Treasury Department said Friday it sent out 9.5 million economic stimulus payments this week, totaling more than $7 billion.

Since April 28, the Treasury has distributed more than 76.5 million stimulus payments, totaling more than $63.8 billion, in the government's plan to revitalize the nation's slackening economy.

There are only four weeks left until the majority of the stimulus payments are distributed, according to the Treasury Department's Web site.

The stimulus program was enacted earlier this year in the wake of a slowdown tied to the credit crisis and the end of the housing boom.

It appears that the payments are starting to have an impact.

On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales grew 1% last month, indicating that the first full month of stimulus payments did in fact get consumers spending. A better measure will come over the summer when the government releases data on second-quarter gross domestic product.

American consumers "spend a very high percentage of their paychecks and so we did not expect anything different with this money," said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp. (WB, Fortune 500) "We really never had any doubt that people were going to spend."

The stimulus effort has given the economy a strong boost, according to Vitner. "A lot of the economy's resilience has to do with the rebate checks," he said.

The Treasury will distribute more than $110 billion to 130 million taxpayers by July. The first payments were made electronically, and nearly all of those were direct deposited into tax filers accounts by the fifth week of the campaign. By July 11, all of the paper checks should be in the mail.

To qualify for a stimulus payment, individuals and households must file a 2007 income tax return. Single taxpayers with adjusted gross income of less than $75,000 last year will get checks of as much as $600. Joint filers with adjusted gross income of less than $150,000 were eligible for a rebate of up to $1,200.

In addition, parents will also receive $300 per child under 17; there is no cap on the number of qualifying children eligible.