Irish consumers have cut back on spending, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The global slowdown persuaded some consumers to save rather than spend. Provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office showed the volume of retail sales rose by 0.7 per cent in May compared to the previous month.

However, when spending on cars is excluded, the increase is 8.5 per cent.

The value of retail sales rose by 3.8 per cent, down from an annual rise of 4.9 per cent in April. This is significantly below the 10 per cent in December 2000 and the 16.2 per cent peak in December 1999. If car sales are excluded, however, following the 00-reg frenzy of last year, the increase is 12.5 per cent.

On a three-month basis, which gives a more stable indication of recent underlying trends, the March-May volume figures showed a 1.8 per cent increase compared with the previous three-month period.

"These numbers are reasonably robust, which is quite surprising. They are out of line with a very marked step-down in tax revenue growth in the same month," said Mr Austin Hughes, economist at IIB Bank.

"But I would place more faith in tax revenue numbers, which are themselves consistent with hard evidence from recent trade and industrial production data indicating a marked slowdown in growth," he said.

In the three months to the end of April, the latest month for which detailed sectoral figures are available, the largest increase in the volume of sales was in the furniture and lighting sector, which was up 11.5 per cent.

The largest fall was in footwear and leather, which was down 0.9 per cent.