Pretoria - Retail trade sales for the month of May 2009 decreased by 4.2 percent compared to 6.7 percent in April, reported Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Wednesday.
According to Stats SA, the decline in employment and the country's recession have curbed consumer spending.
Nedbank economist Isaac Matshego told BuaNews the drop in retail sales was not surprising as households were concerned about their spending.
He said the rate of decline in the retail figures was likely to continue for most of the year.
"The decline will continue for most of the year however the rate of decline will ease because of lower interest rates.
"This however does not mean that consumers are going out to spend their money they are rather spending their money on reducing their debt," said Mr Matshego.
Nedbank predicted that with falling retail figures the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is likely to reduce the repo rate which remains unchanged at 7.5 percent.
"This would be likely in September," said the bank.
