LONDON (AFX) - UK consumer spending showed the first signs of slowing as retail sales volumes in May fell 0.6 pct from April - the sharpest decline since February 2000 and lower than forecasts of a 0.3 pct monthly dip, according to figures by National Statistics. The fall in May was the first this year. Year-on-year retail sales growth was also below analysts' expectations, coming in at 5.4 pct in May compared with forecasts of a 5.6 pct rise. However, economists had cautioned that negative retail sales growth does not necessarily mean consumption is finally slowing down, as May's figure comes on the back of an extremely strong result in April. NS also revised upwards April figures to show a 1.8 pct month-on-month and 7.0 pct year-on year rise from previous estimates of 1.7 pct and 6.9 pct respectively. The dip in May was due largely to a fall in the textile, clothing and footwear subsector. Anecdotal evidence suggests that poor weather conditions in May compared with a relatively sunny April, could have been to blame, NS said. In contrast, the rise in consumer spending on household goods may indicate pre World Cup spending on items suh as wide screen televisions. But again the evidence is anecdotal, NS said. There was no let up in retail sales growth looking at the three month comparison. In the three months to May, sales rose an adjusted 1.9 pct from the previous three months to register its fastest rise since May 1997. NS said the implied deflator for May was -1.4 pct, the lowest it has been since March 2000. In April the figure stood at -0.3 pct. Based on non-seasonally adjusted data, the average weekly value of retail sales in May was 4.26 bln stg, 3.3 pct higher than in May 2001. In the three months to May, the value of sales in current prices was up 1.4 pct compared with previous three months.