More Shopping Mall Woes: Hong Kong Retail Sales in May Dive by 8.4% as Japan's Slump in Consumer Prices Hits Abenomics 2013 Low!

Last mid June, I posted here the deepening travails of US retailers as expressed by diminishing access to credit in response to a business slowdown.

In that post I included Singapore's retail dilemma, where the once shopper's paradise have become afflicted by the mushrooming of numerous vacancies, again response to slower retail business.

Asia's other shopping mecca took a huge hit last May. Hong Kong's retail sales dived by 8.4% in value and 9% in volume! It's the 15 month of retail contractions!

chart from investing.com

From Reuters:

Hong Kong's retail sales fell for the 15th successive month in May, as a drop in mainland tourists and weak local consumption hit spending, triggering concerns about a deeper slump...

Retail sales in May slid 8.4 percent from a year earlier to HK$35.7 billion ($4.60 billion) in value terms, deeper than a 7.5 percent slump in April. In volume terms, May sales dropped 9 percent, government data showed on Thursday.

"Retail sales stayed weak in May...This was due partly to the drag from the slowdown in inbound tourism and partly to the more cautious local consumer sentiment amid the sub par economic conditions," the government said in a statement.

Hong Kong tourist arrivals in May fell 6.4 percent from a year earlier to 4.45 million, after sliding 2.1 percent in April. Mainland visitors, who account for 74.6 percent of the total, fell 8.3 percent to 3.32 million in May.

Just in. Japan's consumer's prices reportedly fell to its lowest level--since the onset of Abenomics!

chart from investing.com

From Bloomberg: Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.4 percent in May from a year earlier, after dropping 0.3 percent in April and March, according to a statistics bureau report on Friday.

This seems consistent with reported slump in retail sales 2 days back.

chart from investing.com

From Reuters: 

Japan's retail sales fell more than expected in May in a third straight month of annual declines, data showed on Wednesday, keeping policymakers under pressure for more stimulus to support a fragile economic recovery. 

Retail sales fell 1.9 percent in May from a year earlier, more than a median market forecast for a 1.6 percent declines, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. 

The weak reading underscores the relative fragility in Japan's economy, with slow wage growth and gloomy prospects of recovery weighing on household spending.

The world is interconnected. Signs of weakness in global retail sales have been spreading and deepening.