Australian retail spending rose 0.5 per cent in December, official figures show.

Total retail spending was $22.582 billion in December, up from $22.469 billion in November, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

Over the December quarter, retail sales rose by 0.9 per cent to $66.130 billion in seasonally adjusted volume terms.

Economists had been forecasting a rise of 0.5 per cent for December and 1.2 per cent gain for the December quarter.