The spike followed a 15 million litre decrease in 2012 from the year before but was still lower than a 2008 high of 486 million litres.
However, there was concern that drinkers were moving to stronger types of alcohol as further analysis of the figures showed the percentage of beer, as a proportion of total volume available, fell from 81 per cent in 1996 to 62 per cent in 2013.
Wine rose from 16 per cent to 23 per cent, and spirits and spirit-based drinks such as RTDs rose from 3 per cent to 15 per cent in the same 17-year period.
Rebecca Williams, director of Alcohol Healthwatch, said the figures appeared to confirm fears around ready-to-drink (RTDs) beverages.
"One of the worries for us has been that the RTDs ... would be exposing those young drinkers to the spirit brands and the heavier spirits, and I think that is happening," she said.
"The spirits component has increased, wine is going up on a fairly steady basis, and the worry about the wine is that it too is actually quite a larger volume of pure alcohol [per drink], so we're seeing a shift to the heavier alcohol products."
Drinks such as wine were being marketed "aggressively" in outlets like supermarkets, as well as campaigns by drinks companies, which were competing heavily with each other, she said.
The figures could show a trend back up to peak levels in 2008.
"Seeing an increase this year, seeing the economy come back on line, all of those things to me will start to signal some concerns that we could be tracking back up again," she said, saying that "when people are feeling better [financially] they spend more on booze".
However, there were some positives to be taken from the figures, Ms Williams said.
While there was an increase last year it was "not a huge'' one, and new alcohol laws, now fully in force, might have a moderating effect on further increases.
"However, with a more positive economic outlook and no controls on pricing and marketing further increases cannot be ruled out.''
Kiwis could not afford to be complacent, she said.
A spokeswoman for Countdown said it had seen a trend towards lower alcohol beer as well as craft beer and ciders, which was reflected in the Stats NZ data.
Wine sales were "fairly constant", but cider sales had grown by around 20 per cent each year for the last two years, with such data possibly contributing to the increase in the Stats NZ wine category figures, which classified cider as a non-grape wine.
The statistics were a measure of how much alcohol was available for consumption, rather than actual consumption, Stats NZ said.
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Volume of alcohol available to consume, in litres (million):
2008:
Total wine - 94.220
Total beer - 322.490
Spirit-based drinks (which includes RTDs) - 59.193
Spirits - 10.487
Total: 486.391
2009:
Total wine - 95.295
Total beer - 306.181
Spirit-based drinks (which includes RTDs) - 59.135
Spirits - 10.498
Total: 471.109
2010:
Wine - 102.614
Beer - 299.348
RTDs - 59.485
Spirits - 12.809
Total - 474.039
2011:
Wine - 97.888
Beer - 299.794
RTDs - 61.928
Spirits - 12.809
Total - 472.420
2012:
Wine - 102.218
Beer - 279.934
RTDs - 62.006
Spirits - 12.885
Total - 457.044
2013:
Wine - 105.926
Beer - 288.811
RTDs - 58.148
Spirits - 13.020
Total - 465.905
Source: Statistics New Zealand
