China retail sales down by 6.7% y/y in May 2022
Strict COVID curbs continued to dampen consumption. Retail sales plunged by 6.7% y/y in May, following the 11.1% y/y decline in April. Commodity retail showed signs of recovery from last month's nearly 10% drop.
However, this was not the case for the catering sector. In May, the revenue of the catering sector decreased by 21.1% y/y, following the 22.7% y/y plunge in April. From January to May, online retail sales of goods increased by 5.6% y/y. A breakdown of the online sales data showed that while daily necessities and food recorded positive growth, clothing did not perform well, decreased by 1.6% y/y in the first five months.
Further data and analysis on China's economy are available on the CEIC China Economy in a Snapshot – Q2 2022 report.