The fall was slightly more than the twelve-month 4.1pc decline in April, making it the fifth month in a row retail sales have contracted at a faster rate.  Retail sales volume in Hungary continued to contract at a faster rate in May, dropping a calendar year-adjusted 4.2pc in May compared to the same month a year earlier, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said. The fall was slightly more than the twelve-month 4.1pc decline in April, making it the fifth month in a row retail sales have contracted at a faster rate. Twelve-month retail sales have fallen every month since February 2007. In a month-on-month comparison, retail sales dropped 0.5pc in May, compared to a 0.3pc drop in April, according to seasonally- and calendar-year-adjusted figures. January-May sales volume fell 3.6pc from the same period a year earlier. The retail sales data include turnover of vehicle fuel from January 2009, in line with changes to revised EU statistical classifications. Hungarian retail sales, at current prices, totalled HUF 598.5bn (EUR 2.2bn) in May and amounted to HUF 2,724.0bn in January-May. Food and FMCG sales accounted for 47pc of retail turnover in January-May. Twelve-month retail sales volume of food, drink and tobacco fell an adjusted 2.3pc in May, slowing from a 3.2pc drop in April. In a month-on-month comparison, food, drink and tobacco sales inched down 0.1pc. Food sales dropped 2.6pc in January-May from the same period a year earlier. Retail sales of non-food products, excluding vehicle fuel, fell 8.0pc in May, the biggest twelve-month drop in a year. Non-food retail sales slipped 2.6pc in a month-on-month comparison, after rising 1.0pc in April. Sales fell 6.7pc in January-May from the same period a year earlier. Vehicle fuel sales fell 0.4pc in May from the same month a year earlier, marking the first twelve-month decline since January. In a month-on-month comparison, fuel sales were flat in May, after falling 0.4pc in April and rising 0.2pc-0.7pc each month from December to March. Retail sales of furniture, household products and building materials plunged 12.8pc in May from twelve months earlier. The only increases in a segment-by-segment breakdown were for sales of second-hand goods, which jumped 23.7pc, and cosmetics, up 7.8pc. Sales of pharmaceuticals and medical products fell 2.9pc in May from twelve months earlier, but inched up 0.2pc compared to April. Sales of textiles, clothing and footwear were practically unchanged in a twelve-month comparison. Sales of books and newspapers dropped 7.7pc in a twelve-month and 2.3pc in a month-on-month comparison.