Automotive sales contract
The volume of retail sales for motor vehicles and parts tumbled by more than $90 million, or 2.5 per cent in the December 2023 quarter, when compared with the previous quarter.
Seasonally adjusted figures show sales volumes for the sector came in at $3.46 billion in the final three months of last year, down from $3.56m in the July-September period, according to Stats NZ.
The automotive category was the largest contributor to the total volume of retail sales falling 1.9 per cent in the December quarter, the eight consecutive quarterly decline.
Melissa McKenzie, business financial statistics manager at Stats NZ, says: “Ongoing falls in retail activity over the last two years were marked by a fall in most industries in the December quarter.”
Fourteen of the 15 retail industries had lower sales volumes in the December 2023 quarter compared with the September 2023 quarter, with the other big decliners being food and beverage services slipping $62m, or 2.4 per cent, and fuel down $55m, or 3.6 per cent.
The only industry with an increase was pharmaceutical and other store-based retailing, up 0.3 per cent.
As for total retail sales values, these fell 1.5 per cent overall to $30.1b as 12 of the 15 industries suffered quarter-on-quarter declines.
For motor vehicles and parts, the drop over that timeframe was $142m, or 3.5 per cent, while without adjusting for price and seasonal effects the figures plunged $142m, or 4.1 per cent, to $3.92b.
