Heat Goes on Retailers - industries - business | Stuff.co.nz

Retail spending is expected to rebound this month after Easter and warm weather took the wind out of March shopping.

Kiwis spent less on their credit and debit cards last month compared with February, in the first monthly spending slip in six months.

Spending in the core retail categories fell 0.8 per cent, or about $27 million, seasonally adjusted Statistics New Zealand data shows.

Clothing, footwear and soft goods shopping suffered the biggest blow - down 6.2 per cent, or $18m.

Total retail spending, including vehicle-related spending, fell 0.5 per cent last month, while total spending - which includes services and non-retail sectors such as health - was down 1.2 per cent, to $5.8 billion.

Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon said Easter wiped out two trading days in March - a rare event given Easter was usually in April - and that was likely to have affected the data.

A "strong rebound" was expected in April but "we'll need to take the two months' figures together to make sense of the trend".

- ? Fairfax NZ News

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8534886/Heat-goes-on-retailers

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