RETAIL SALES figures for June showed a continued slowdown in consumer spending, raising concerns about the momentum of the recovery.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (CSO), seasonally adjusted nominal sales, excluding the volatile motor trade, fell by 1.1 per cent on May.

This was the third consecutive month-on-month decline. The volume of sales, which excludes price effects, also fell in June. This was the second month in a row that the volume measure contracted.

Retail sales declined almost without interruption from 2007 to the end of 2009. In the early months of 2010, a modest rebound was observable, but this lost steam in the second quarter.

Downward revisions to each of the previous five months from January to May give further credence to the interpretation that the underlying position of consumers is one of both weakness and caution.

Of the 13 retail sectors included in the survey, six registered month-on-month volume declines in June. Furniture and lighting sales suffered the steepest fall, tumbling by 8.9 per cent on May.

Fuels and motor trades were among the seven subsectors that expanded.

It is likely the auto trade continues to benefit from the scrappage scheme introduced at the start of this year.

The scheme provides incentives for the purchase of new cars, provided a vehicle traded in is aged 10 years or more.

Bars also registered growth in sales. This comes after the sector experienced the sharpest decline of any of the 13 subsectors over the past year.

Retail representative group, Retail Excellence Ireland, said the CSO numbers concurred with data it had collected from its members.

The retail sales figures were inadvertently released by the CSO on Twitter, a social networking website, yesterday afternoon. The office then decided to bring forward the release of the full document to 5pm.

The numbers had been scheduled for release on Tuesday.