Consumer prices in New Zealand dipped 0.3 percent on quarter in the first quarter of 2015, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday.

That missed forecasts for a decline of 0.2 percent, which would have been unchanged from the previous three months.

The last time the CPI showed two consecutive quarterly falls was in the December 1998 and March 1999 quarters, the bureau said.

"The fall in the March quarter CPI, which last happened in 2001, was caused by an 11 percent fall in petrol prices. Without petrol, the CPI rose 0.3 percent," prices manager Chris Pike said.

The average price of a liter of 91 octane petrol in the March 2015 quarter was NZ$1.79, compared with NZ$2.00 in the previous quarter. By the end of the March quarter, petrol pump prices were 1.8 percent above the average price for the quarter.

If petrol pump prices stay at their 17 April level for the remainder of the June 2015 quarter, petrol will have an upward contribution to the CPI for the June quarter, the bureau noted.

Cigarette and tobacco prices rose 12 percent in the latest quarter, following an 11 percent rise in excise duty in January. The CPI less cigarettes and tobacco fell 0.7 percent. The average price of a pack of 25 cigarettes was about NZ$26.40 in the March 2015 quarter, compared with NZ$23.30 in the previous quarter.

Housing rentals rose 0.8 percent, with Canterbury up 1.2 percent and Auckland up 0.8 percent. Prices for newly built houses excluding land rose 0.8 percent nationally, with Auckland up 0.7 percent.

On a yearly basis, consumer prices moved up 0.1 percent - also missing expectations for a gain of 0.2 percent, and down sharply from the 0.8 increase in Q4.

This is the smallest annual movement since the September 1999 quarter, when prices decreased 0.5 percent over the year, the bureau said.

The prices of tradable goods and services (which face foreign competition) decreased 2.8 percent in the year, with lower prices for petrol (down 15 percent) and for audio-visual and computing equipment (down 13 percent). Tradable prices are now at their lowest level since the June 2009 quarter, despite petrol prices now being 12 percent higher than they were in that quarter.

Non-tradable goods and services increased 2.3 percent, the lowest annual increase since the September 2012 quarter. The main contributor was cigarettes and tobacco prices (up 14 percent), influenced by the increase in excise duty in January 2015. Housing and household utility prices were up 3.0 percent in the year, with higher prices for newly built houses excluding land (up 5.0 percent), housing rentals (up 2.3 percent), and electricity (up 3.6 percent).

Excluding cigarettes and tobacco, the annual CPI decreased 0.2 percent; excluding petrol, the CPI increased 1.0 percent over the year.

Also on Monday, the service sector in New Zealand continued to pick up steam in March, the latest survey from Business NZ revealed, with a PMI score of 57.6.

That's up sharply from the upwardly revised 56.0 in February (originally 55.6), and it moves further above the boom-or-bust level of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Among the individual components of the survey, the sub-index for sales remained above 60 for the third straight month, while the employment component also moved sharply higher.