BEIJING -- China's retail sales of consumer goods went down 1.5 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 17.17 trillion yuan ($2.54 trillion) during the period, data from the NBS showed.

In May alone, retail sales decreased 6.7 percent from a year ago to 3.35 trillion yuan.