Retail spending using credit and debit cards increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 per cent in April 2014, according to Statistics New Zealand.

“Spending rose in three retail industries during April, and fell in three,” business indicators manager, Neil Kelly, said.

“Fuel and consumables had the largest rises, while apparel had the largest fall,” Kelly said.

The three largest retail movements in April 2014 were fuel up $11 million (1.5 per cent); consumables, up $11 million (0.7 per cent); and apparel, down $8 million (2.7 percent).

Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle related industries) was flat, increasing just 0.1 per cent in April 2014.

The two non retail industries both decreased in April, resulting in a 0.4 per cent fall in the total value of transactions.

Trends for the value of transactions in the retail and core retail series have continued to increase since these series began in October 2002.

The trend for the total series has also generally been increasing over this time, but appears to have flattened in recent months.

In unadjusted terms, 113 million transactions were made across all industries in April, with an average value of $51. The total amount spent across all transactions was $5.8 billion.