Retail sales index shrinks another 2.7% in May

Weakness was felt across the board as all sub-sectors save for furniture & household equipment declined m-o-m.

The biggest source of shrinkage came from the watches & jewellery subsector, reversing its 1% m-o-m growth in April to a significantly weaker 6.5% contraction in May. Medical goods & toiletries (-6.3%), wearing apparel & footwear (-5.4%) and telecommunications apparatus & equipment (-4.9%) also tumbled into negative territory anew.

The retail sales index would have been much worse if it weren't for the improvement in the motor vehicles sub-sector, climbing from a -6.3% m-o-m growth in Apr to just -0.9% in May.

Here's more from SingStat:

Month-on-Month Change (Seasonally Adjusted). After seasonal adjustment, retailers of watches & jewellery, medical goods & toiletries, wearing apparel & footwear, telecommunications apparatus & computers and petrol service stations registered declines in sales of between 4.8% and 6.5% in May 2012 over April 2012

Retail sales of optical goods & books, recreational goods, department stores, food & beverages, provision & sundry shops and motor vehicles also decreased between 0.7% and 3.2% over the same period. On the other hand, retail sales of furniture & household equipment increased 1.9% in May 2012 compared to the previous month.

Year-on-Year Change. Compared to May 2011, retailers of medical goods & toiletries, petrol service stations, supermarkets, food & beverages and recreational goods recorded increases in sales of between 4.1% and 7.3% in May 2012. Similarly, retail sales of provision & sundry shops, furniture & household equipment and telecommunications apparatus & computers increased between 0.6% and 1.3%.

On the other hand, retailers of optical goods & books reported a 7.8% decline in sales while retail sales of department stores and watches & jewellery decreased 2.2% and 2.0% respectively in May 2012 over May 2011.