Australian retail sales rose 0.2% month-on-month in May, according to data released Wednesday morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, to $37,293.0 million. This fell short of expectations for a 0.3% increase. The index rose 3.3% year-on-year compared to May last year, marking the slowest annual growth rate since November of last year.
In detail, food retail sales fell by about 0.4%, the first monthly decline this year, to $-56.7 million in May, while clothing, footwear, and accessories sales rose 2.9% to $-87.5 million.