China: Retail sales drop for fourth month in a row in April
Retail sales fell 7.5% year-on-year in April (March: -15.8% yoy). The print was below the 6.0% contraction that market analysts had expected.
The softer decline mostly reflected a flat reading in car sales as well as smaller contractions in sales of household appliances and clothing and footwear.
On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, retail sales rose at a softer pace of 0.32% in April (March: +0.38% mom). Meanwhile, the trend pointed down, with the annual average growth of retail sales coming in at 0.0% in April, down from March’s 1.2%.