Japan – April Retail Trade: -4.4% y/y (vs -3.3% expected)

From Japan - Retail trade for April: -4.4% y/y

• expected is -3.3%, prior was +11.0%

For the m/m: -13.7%

• expected -11.7%, prior was +6.4% (revised from +6.3%)

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USD/JPY is down a few tics after the data but not much movement.

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The y/y fall is the fastest since July 2012. While a fall was expected due to the effect of the sales tax hike on April 1, this fall is quite a good bit more than expectations.