Allowing for seasonal adjustments, this is a fall of 3.4 percent over April sales. The Watch and Jewellery sector performed maginally lower than the average across all retail sectors in New Zealand, where the fall was 1.2 percent. Motor Vehicle retailing had the largest fall of 14.8 percent.

For the Watch and Jewellery retailing sector, core retail sales for the first five months of 2008 rose by 8 percent to $165 million.