Korea’s department stores suffered their worst sales drop in history in January.

According to preliminary government data, sales fell 9.7 per cent year-on-year, the worst figure since record taking commenced in 2005.

January marked the fifth consecutive monthly year-on-year fall.

Discount stores fared the worst, posting a massive 20.7 per cent, according to the finance ministry. Remarkably, that’s not a record in itself – in February 2014, they fell 23.1 per cent.

Korea retail sales data is collated by the government based on reported sales from the three department store conglomerates – Hyundai Department Store, Lotte Shopping and Shinsegae. They run discount formats and full scale department store chains.

The ministry attributed January’s weak sales in part to the change in the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in late January last year but in the middle of February this year.