China Retail Sales – May 2026: Weakness Remains

Research evidence excerpt

China Retail Sales – May 2026: Weakness Remains

Idea

June 16, 2026 07:11 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+MChina/Hong Kong Consumer | Asia Pacific Lillian Lou

Equity Analyst

China Retail Sales – May 2026: Lillian.Lou@morganstanley.comDustin Wei +852 2848-6502

Dustin.Wei@morganstanley.com +852 2239-7823

Weakness Remains Hildy Ling

Hildy.Ling@morganstanley.com +852 2239-7834

China retail sales down 0.6% YoY in May (3.2% CAGR vs. 2019),

Morgan Stanley Taiwan Limited+

below -0.2% consensus and +0.2% in Apr 26, the first decline Terence Cheng

post Covid. Major categories' growth slowing, while online retail EquityTerence.Cheng@morganstanley.comAnalyst +886 2 2730-2873

sales picked up. For June, consumer sentiment during Dragon Jenny Ting

Boat Festival remains the key to watch. ResearchJenny.Ting@morganstanley.comAssociate +886 2 2730-2995

YoY trend by category (reported YoY, with rebasing among categories): Further Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+

Jenny Yudeceleration from retail sales of goods at -0.7% yoy in May vs. -0.1% in Apr, and

Research Associate

restaurants showed a larger slowdown to 0.6% from 2.2% in Apr, partly dragged by Jenny.Yu1@morganstanley.com +852 3963-1925

soft consumer sentiment during the May Labor Day holiday and calendar shift of Carlos Liu, CFA

the Dragon Boat holiday. Online retail sales growth picked up to 3.4% yoy (2.3% in Research Associate

Carlos.Liu@morganstanley.com +852 2848-5206

Apr).

• Among all categories, soft drink and apparel recorded growth yoy (+6.1% and

+3.8%, respectively) with improvements vs. last month (+3.6% and +3.6%,

respectively).

• Most staples categories slowed, F&B growth further decelerated to 2.8% China/Hong Kong Consumer

from 5.4% in Apr, of which soft drinks was the only category with growth Asia Pacific