New Zealanders tightened their spending habits in February, according to worse than expected retail sales figures for the month.
Statistics New Zealand today said the $4.42 billion of seasonally adjusted sales figures in February was 1.6 per cent down on the revised $4.49 billion in January.
Economists polled by Reuters had expectedan average decrease of 1.0 per cent.
The sales dip in February follows a 3.0 per cent increase in January and a 0.2 per cent decrease in December.
Seasonally adjusted sales in the core retail group, which excludes the four motor vehicle retailing industries, decreased 1.2 per cent in February.
Eight of the 24 retail categories recorded sales increases in February over January.
The industries with the largest dollar value increases were accommodation (up $12 million to $179 million) and hardware (up $5 million to $90 million).
The largest decrease occurred in other retailing (down $28 million to $192 million), which included watches and jewellery, garden supplies, and antiques retailing.
Other decreases included supermarket and grocery stores (down $19 million to $924 million), department stores (down $3 million to $275 million), and fresh produce retailing (down $3 million to $67 million).
A Statistics NZ spokeswoman said flooding in the lower North Island's crop-growing areas had little effect on produce sales in February.
Government statistician Brian Pink said the total retail sales trend continued its steady upward movement, increasing 0.4 per cent.
"An extra trading day in February 2004 contributed to the largest monthly increase in actual total retail sales since January 2003," Mr Pink said in a statement.
Actual sales in February were 7.4 per cent higher than in the same month last year, up on economists' predictions of an average 6.1 per cent increase.
Actual sales in February were $4.22 billion compared with $3.93 billion in the previous same month.
Regionally, total actual sales in the North Island in February were $3.15 billion, compared with $1.06 billion in the South Island.
Waikato was the only region to record a drop in year-on-year actual sales.
