Canberra has recorded a decline in year-on-year April retail spending for the first time since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began recording monthly data in April 1982.

Retail sales in the ACT fell to $406.3 million in April according to ABS data released on Tuesday, which is a 0.7 per cent decline on the 409.3 million posted in March.

Retail sales in the ACT fell to $406.3 million in April.

The April figures are the lowest sales result posted in the ACT since January 2012, but are higher than the $394 million posted in April 2012 or the $381 million in April 2011.