Retail spending using electronic cards decreased by a seasonally adjusted 0.4 per cent in January 2015, according to new data released by Statistics New Zealand.

This fall follows a 0.1 per cent decrease in December 2014.

Neil Kelly, business indicators manager, said spending on fuel fell in January for the third consecutive month, coinciding with falling fuel prices over these months, however, most other retail industries had increases with consumables and durables leading these rises.

The largest retail movements in January 2015 were fuel, down $48 million (6.7 per cent); consumables,up $22 million (1.3 per cent); and durables, up $10 million (0.9 per cent). Core retail spending, which excludes the vehicle-related industries, rose 0.9 per cent in January 2015.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail industries (services and other non-retail), rose 0.1 per cent.

Trends for the total, retail, and core retail series have generally been rising since these series began in October 2002, although the total and retail series have eased in recent months.

In actual terms, card-holders made 125 million transactions across all industries in January, with an average value of $50. The total amount spent across all transactions was $6.2 billion.

This data is not adjusted for price changes and is available only at the national level.