SYDNEY Australian retail sales were flat in April as consumers, in the face of high cost of living and rising interest rates, curbed spending on food and eating out.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Friday showed retail sales were unchanged in April from March, when they rose 0.4%. Analysts had looked for a 0.2% growth.

Sales of A$35.26 billion ($23.92 billion) were up 4.2% from a year earlier, slowing from the 5.4% growth in March.

($1 = 1.4743 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)