Car sales continue to slump.
Vehicle sales in January were $66 million, a drop of 11%. Fuel sales were also down $14 million.
If vehicle and fuel sales are stripped out, Statistics New Zealand says retail sales actually rose slightly in the month, up by 0.3%.
Supermarket sales were up by 1.7% while recreation goods retailing experienced a lift of 5.2%.
But the biggest fall was in appliance sales, which were down 6.6%.