Seasonally adjusted retail sales fell 0.3%, or by NZ$18 million, in April with the biggest falls coming from sales at department stores, in automotive fuel retailing and at chemists.
By region, seasonally adjusted April sales fell 0.8% and 0.5% in Auckland and Wellington, respectively. All other regions recorded flat or increasing sales.
The April fall compares to a 0.5% increase in March. Statistics New Zealand said when vehicle-related industries are stripped out, core April retail sales slipped 0.2% in April following a 1% rise in March.
ASB economist Christina Leung said the figures confirmed that households remained cautious in regards to their spending on discretionary items.
"More recent electronic card transactions data suggest some improvement in spending in May," Leung said.
"In addition, we expect an increase in spending on durables in the coming months as households bring forward their purchases of big ticket items. Overall, we expect a continued recovery in the labour market this year will underpin a recovery in household spending over the second half of 2010."
Department stores fell 3.3%, or NZ$11 million, automotive fuel retailing shed 1.1%, or NZ$6 million and chemist retailing dropped 3.6%, or by NZ$6 million.
Heading the other way was accommodation, up 7% or NZ$15 million and supermarket and grocery stores sales rising 0.5%, or by NZ$6 million.
The core retail sales trend has been in decline since October last year, being down a total of 0.9% since then. Statistics New Zealand says this is the first period of decline in the core trend since 1995.
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