— Japan Apr Retail Sales Drop Decelerates From -8.3% In Mar
— Japan Apr Retail Sales MNI Poll Median Forecast -6.0%
— Japan Apr Retail Sales Post 2nd Straight Y/Y Drop
— Japan Apr Retail Auto Sales -38.0% Y/Y; Mar Revised -32.7%
— Japan Apr Retail Machinery Sales -9.6% Y/Y; Mar Rev -17.1%
— Japan Apr Retail Fuel Sales +1.0% Y/Y; Mar Rev +5.3%

TOKYO (MNI) – Japanese retail sales marked the second consecutive
year-on-year fall as the March 11 earthquake disaster continued to
dampen sales at major retailers but the year-on-year drop in April
slowed from the previous month, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry released on Friday showed.

Japan’s retail sales was down 4.8% in April, improving from -8.3%
in March and coming in stronger than the median forecast for a 6.0% drop
in a Market News International survey of economists.

METI data also showed that seasonally adjusted retail sales rose by
a record 4.1% in April from a sharp 7.6% drop in March and a 0.8% gain
in February.

“Retail sales are in the process of returning to normal
conditions,” a METI official told reporters.

Retail sales plunged 8.3% in March from a year earlier, the second
largest drop on record after -14.3% in March 1998, which was in payback
for rush purchases in March 1997 ahead of the sales tax hike in April
that year.

Sales gained only 0.1% in each of February and January this year
following a 2.1% drop in December last year. The April drop was the
fourth in the past 12 months.

In the latest retail sales data, automobile sales tumbled a record
38.0% year-on-year in April, the seventh consecutive y/y fall after a
revised -32.7% in March.

New vehicle sales in Japan tumbled at a record pace in April as the
March 11 earthquake disaster wrecked supply chains for automobile
production and dampened consumer sentiment, according to data released
by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association on Monday.

New vehicle sales plunged 51.0% from a year earlier to 108,824 last
month, the eighth straight month of a year-on-year decline, following a
37.0% drop in March.

The previous record decline was marked in May 1974, when sales
plunged 45.1% following the outbreak of the first oil crisis.

Sales of machinery and equipment including consumer electronics
declined 9.6%, marking the fifth consecutive y/y drop, after a revised
17.1% fall in March.

Meanwhile, fuel sales rose 1.0% from a year earlier in April,
marking the 17th consecutive y/y rise, on rising gasoline and heating
oil prices. But the pace of y/y gains slowed from a revised 5.3% rise in
March.

Other details from the latest data:

Commercial sales, or combined sales at the wholesale and retail
levels (y/y): April -2.8%, the second fall in 14 months, following a
revised -1.3% in March.

Sales at the wholesale level (y/y): April -2.0%, the first y/y fall
in nine months after a revised +1.2% in March.

Large retail store sales on a same-store adjusted basis (y/y):
April -1.9%, the second consecutive y/y fall, after -7.5% in March.

Large retail store sales, unadjusted (y/y): April -0.9%, also the
second consecutive y/y fall, following -6.5% in March.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **

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