Kiwi retailers continued to face a challenging business environment, with Retail NZ’s Retail Radar quarterly survey showing 71 per cent of its members did not achieve their sales targets during the last quarter.

Moreover, 42 per cent of the retailers are uncertain if they can survive the next year.

“While the potential change in the Official Cash Rate provides some hope, the challenge for retailers is to survive until 2025,” said Carolyn Young, Retail NZ CEO.

“Along with last week’s tax cuts, we hope that consumers will start feeling more confident, with a greater willingness to support local retail businesses.”

In July alone, consumer spending at Worldline’s payment network at core retail merchants excluding hospitality fell 2.6 per cent year over year to $2.82 billion.

During the month, Whanganui saw the highest retail sales growth of 3.7 per cent among all regions, with turnover amounting to $41 million.

Marlborough’s retail sales grew 2.6 per cent to $37 million while West Coast increased 2.1 per cent to $21 million.

Meanwhile, Southland had the steepest decline of 7.1 per cent to $64 million, followed by Bay of Plenty, which fell 6.3 per cent to $187 million.

South Canterbury slid 4.4 per cent to $49 million while Auckland/Northland decreased 3.6 per cent to $1.04 billion.