Australia Retail Sales Rise Less Than Forecast

(RTTNews) - Australia's retail sales increased at a slower-than-expected pace in May due to the drop in food-related spending, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday.

Retail turnover grew 0.2 percent on a monthly basis, after remaining flat in April. However, this was weaker than economists' forecast of 0.3 percent.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth eased to 3.3 percent from 3.8 percent in the previous month. This was the slowest growth since last November.

Retail spending rose in May driven mainly by a bounce-back in clothing purchases, ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said.

"Retail spending was otherwise restrained this month, with a drop in food-related spending and flat results across household goods," added Ewing. Data showed that food-related spending dropped for the first time this year. Food retailing was down 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing climbed 2.9 percent and department stores registered a 2.6 percent increase.