Australian retail sales have fallen short of analyst forecasts, rising just 0.3 per cent in May after having dipped in April.

The Bureau of Statistics had originally reported flat sales in April, but this has now been revised to a 0.1 per cent fall, while May’s 0.3 per cent increase was below the typical analyst forecast of a 0.5 per cent bounce in a survey by Reuters.

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The ABS estimates that Australians spent almost $24.2 billion in stores during May.

Newspaper and book retailing recorded the largest seasonally adjusted fall of 3 per cent in May.

However, clothing retailers also struggled, with sales off 1.3 per cent, as did department stores which had a 1.4 per cent slide in sales amid a stagnant trend for that sector.

Takeaway food saw a 0.7 per cent decline, while cafes and restaurants had negligible 0.1 per cent growth.

There was also a surprise 0.1 per cent fall for the electronics category, which many forecasters had expected to receive an immediate boost from the Federal Government’s $20,000 small business asset write-off announced in the May budget.

In contrast, other home and office supplies saw strong sales rises, with hardware, building and garden up 1.7 per cent and furniture and homewares rising 1.2 per cent.

Food and liquor retailers also had a strong month in May, with grocery sales up 0.7 per cent, alcohol up 0.6 per cent and specialised food sellers seeing a 0.5 per cent increase in turnover.

“Other” retailing and pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and toiletries also posted solid sales gains of 0.8 and 0.7 per cent respectively.

The Australian dollar lost around 0.7 of a US cent on the figures, before bouncing back slightly to 75.9 US cents by 12:12pm (AEST).