India, July 2 -- Australia's retail sales increased at a slower-than-expected pace in May due to the drop in food-related spending, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday.
Retail turnover grew 0.2 percent on a monthly basis, after remaining flat in April. However, this was weaker than economists' forecast of 0.3 percent.
On a yearly basis, retail sales growth eased to 3.3 percent from 3.8 percent in the previous month. This was the slowest growth since last November.
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Retail spending rose in May driven mainly by a bounce-back in clothing purchases, ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said.
"Retail spending was otherwi...