WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand retail sales jumped in the fourth quarter, official data showed on Monday, pushing the local currency higher as it tempered concerns of softer growth in the country's economy.
New Zealand retail sales volumes rose a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter, data Statistics New Zealand showed, putting sales 3.5 percent higher on the year.
That was a sharp pick up from the 0.3 percent quarterly growth in the previous three-month period.
The New Zealand dollar rose from around $0.6845 to a four-day high of $0.6865 following the release.
"It suggests that...Q4 production GDP will be quite solid," said Christina Leung, principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER). "It suggests that there's still a bit of momentum in the New Zealand economy in the final quarter of last year."
Quarterly growth had slumped to its slowest pace in five years in the third quarter, and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) had warned that if slower growth missed its relatively rosy GDP forecasts it could start to consider a rate cut.
In Monday's data, sales from store-based retailing, which includes duty-free shops and chemists, rose 8.2 percent while food and beverage services jumped a record 4.2 percent, pointing to ongoing support for New Zealand's economy from a tourism boom in recent years.
"Increased visitor numbers to New Zealand could be a factor in higher sales for both of these industries, such as sales for duty-free outlets and food service operators," said Statistics New Zealand retail statistics manager Sue Chapman.
Fourth quarter gross domestic product is set to be released on March 21.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield and Praveen Menon; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
