The luxury industry has been hit by a slowdown as a pandemic-era shopping boom comes to an end.

LVMH reported its weakest quarterly sales growth since the pandemic recovery supercharged luxury revenues at the start of 2021, as Chinese demand subsided and champagne sales fell. The world’s largest luxury group said like-for-like sales in Asia excluding Japan — which is dominated by the Chinese market — declined 6 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Revenues in the US and Europe grew 2 per cent, while sales in Japan increased 32 per cent, buoyed by the weak yen and an increase in Chinese tourist shopping. LVMH has kicked off the luxury earnings season “with a softer start to the year, as widely expected by the market, due to the multiyear tough comparable basis and weak trends globally”, said Zuzanna Pusz, analyst at UBS.