WELLINGTON - Retail sales appear to be in a consolidation phase with July's seasonally-adjusted figures down 0.2 per cent from June.
But Statistics NZ says that correcting for trading-days effects, such as variations in the number of week and weekend days in a month, would have had July figuresup 0.6 per cent.
Bank of New Zealand economist Peter Jolly said the figures confirmed that there had been a softening in retail spending in recent months and this was consistent with confidence, credit demand and tax data.
Deutsche Bank chief economist Ulf Schoefisch said other indicators of consumer demand remained reasonably robust.
"In particular, growth in imports of consumption goods remains buoyant, while low interest rates continue to stimulate high rates of growth in housing turnover and residential investment," he said.
Four store categories recorded lower sales than in July last year - footwear, appliance, hardware and vehicle retailers.
But cafes, restaurants and takeaways enjoyed double-digit growth for the fifth month in a row.
Department stores were up 9 per cent on July last year, and hotels up 8 per cent. Short-term visitor arrivals in July were 4.8 per cent higher than for July last year.
Statistics NZ said the underlying trend in retail sales had been positive since May last year, but growth had slowed over recent months.
Auckland sales continued to see-saw, down 0.5 per cent seasonally adjusted in July, after rising 2 per cent in June.
