Consumers, many of them armed with federal government stimulus payments, spent a record $19.4 billion shopping in April.

But the stimulus package failed to lift the performance of companies, with profits falling in the March quarter.

Such weakness cements expectations for a frail set of national accounts on Wednesday that will confirm the economy is in recession.

Retail trade rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3 per cent in April, building on the solid 2.2 per cent increase in March, the Australian Bureau of statistics said on Monday.

Economists’ forecasts centred on a 0.5 per cent rise in April.

The Australian Tax Office started its rollout of tax bonuses of up to $900 for those earning less that $100,000 a year in April, as part of the government’s $42 billion stimulus package.

Centrelink doled out one-off cash handouts to low-income families and students in March.

Company gross operating profits fell for a second consecutive quarter, slumping 7.2 per cent in the three months to the end of March.

Economists had forecast a 4.5 per cent decline.

Business inventories - goods on shelves and in warehouses - fell 1.2 per cent in the March quarter, compared with a forecast 1.4 per cent decline.

The inventories fall was less than the 1.9 per cent tumble in the previous quarter - the biggest quarterly drop since September 1986 - that made a major contribution to the December quarter’s gross domestic product growth (GDP)contraction.

Prior to Monday’s data, economists had forecast a 0.2 per cent in the March quarter GDP that would put the economy officially in recession.

Spending on household goods was the major prop for retailing in April, jumping 3.9 per cent on March, followed by a 0.8 per cent increase in clothing and soft goods retailing.

But there was a 2.8 per cent drop in department store spending, a month after they posted a 13.2 per cent surge.

Spending at cafes and restaurants, and on takeaway food, fell 0.5 per cent while food retailing eased 0.2 per cent.

Spending was mixed across the states and territories.

Consumers in NSW were the big spenders in April, growing 1.3 per cent, followed by Queensland (0.8 per cent).

Northern Territorians held back on spending with their total dropping 4.6 per cent, followed by Western Australia with a 2.4 per cent fall.

AAP