Japan April retail sales fall 4.8 pct year/year

(For more stories on the Japanese economy, click [ID:nECONJP])

TOKYO, May 27 (Reuters) - Japanese retail sales fell 4.8
percent in April from a year earlier, but the pace of decline
slowed from the previous month, government data showed on
Friday, as worries about the impact from the March earthquake
and tsunami started to ease.

The fall was less than a median market forecast
for a 6.1 percent annual decline and followed an 8.3 percent
drop in March, which had been the fastest annual fall in 13
years.

Details were as follows (previous figures may be revised;
economists' median forecast in parentheses):

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Retail sales APRIL MARCH FEBRUARY
-------------------------------------------------------------

year/year -4.8 (-6.1) -8.3 +0.1

month/month +4.1 -7.6 +0.8
-------------------------------------------------------------

To view full tables, go to the website of the Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry at:
here

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko)