An increase in spending on credit and debit cards in March has been eroded with figures for April showing a fall of similar proportions.
Excluding car and fuel sales, spending dropped by 1.9% on a seasonally-adjusted basis, following a rise of 2% in March.
Statistics New Zealand says the fall was driven by a drop in sales of durables like furniture and appliances and consumables like food and liquor.
Non-retail transactions, which include travel and health, were up 0.2%, with the total number of all transactions up 5.8%.
Statistics New Zealand says the trend for card spending has been increasing since January last year, but the rate of growth has eased in recent months.
