WELLINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's retail card spending fell 2.2 percent in April 2018, following a rise in March, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Wednesday.

Large falls in grocery and liquor retailing and in fuel retailing contributed to April's decrease, Stats NZ said.

"The fall in retail card spending is unusually large. It was driven by a drop in sales of groceries and liquor, as well as an unexpected dip in fuel," business performance senior manager Peter Dolan said in a statement.

"The drop in fuel sales was unexpected because petrol prices rose as much as 9 cents a liter during the April month," Dolan said.

Card spending fell across three of the six retail industries, with the largest fall in grocery and liquor retailing, he said.

Core retail spending, which excludes the vehicle-related industries, fell 2.3 percent in April 2018, after a rise of 2 percent in March 2018, statistics show.

Actual retail spending using electronic cards was 5.1 billion NZ dollars (3.55 billion U.S. dollars) in April 2018, up 0.8 percent year on year, Stats NZ said.