Actual total retail sales in the month of June were down 1.1% from June last year, but sales in core retail (which excludes automotive retailing) were up 3.1% from a year ago, figures released by Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) show.

The results reflect the tough year experienced by the automotive industry, which looks like it may have bottomed out going on recent vehicle registration figures released by the NZ Transport Authority. Motor vehicle retailing sales rose 4.2% in June from May, their second consecutive monthly rise, but were still down 12.2% from June 2008. The annual decline was the slowest since a 10% fall in December 2008.

Appliance retailing saw a big jump over the month, with the value of sales up 12.6% from both May 2009 and June 2008 to NZ$223 million, its highest level since Christmas.

Seasonally adjusted, total retail sales rose 0.1% from May. However, core retail sales were down 0.4%, giving another indication that the vehicle sector has stopped falling and recently started to regain growth.

For the June quarter, seasonally adjusted figures showed total sales rose 1.1% from the March quarter, which was the first positive quarterly growth since the March 2008 quarter, Stats NZ said.

"The biggest contributors to the (quarterly) increase in sales values were supermarket and grocery stores (up 2.3 percent or $86 million) and motor vehicle retailing (up 3.0 percent or $47 million)," Stats NZ said.

"The increase in motor vehicle retailing sales was the first since the September 2007 quarter. However, the value of motor vehicle retailing sales in the latest quarter remains at about the same quarterly level as in 2001, approximately $1.6 billion," it said.

Actual figures show total sales in the June quarter were down 1.8% from June 2008, but this was better than the 4.1% annual decline seen in the March quarter. Actual core retail sales in the June quarter were up 2.7% from a year ago, following the 0.5% rise in the March quarter.