China Retail Sales YoY

China's retail sales increased by 5.1% yoy in April 2025, moderating from March's over 1-year high of 5.9% and missing market estimates of 5.5%. The slowdown came amid weak domestic consumption, as households remained cautious due to economic uncertainty, sluggish income growth, and concerns over the impact of rising U.S. tariffs. Sales growth eased for tobacco and alcohol (4.0% vs 8.5% in March), beverages (2.9% vs 4.4%), clothing, shoes (2.2% vs 3.6%), sports and entertainments (23.3% vs 26.3%), personal care (7.6% vs 8.8%), and cars (0.7% vs 5.5%). At the same time, sales declined much steeper for petroleum products (-5.7% vs -1.9%). On the flip side, sales accelerated for grain, oil and food (14.0% vs 13.8%), household appliances (38.8% vs 35.1%), jewelry (25.3% vs 10.6%), office supplies (33.5% vs 21.5%) and medicine (2.6% vs 1.4%) amid a sharp rebound in sales of building materials (9.7% vs -0.1%). Considering the first four months of the year, retail turnover expanded by 4.7%.