NZ credit, debit card spending rises in January

Friday 10th February 2012

New Zealanders returned to the stores in January as spending on credit and debit cards rose last month.

The value of total transactions advanced 1 percent to a seasonally adjusted $5.45 billion in January, with more money spent across all industries, according to Statistics New Zealand. That follows monthly declines in the previous two periods. Spending on core retail industries, which strips out motor-vehicle related expenditure, climbed 1 percent to $3.37 billion.

Spending on apparel reported the biggest gain, up 2.1 percent to $281 million, followed by a 1.6 percent increase in vehicle spending to $109 million, and a 0.5 percent rise in consumables to $1.47 billion. Spending on durables rose 0.4 percent to $1 billion, while hospitality advanced 0.3 percent to $606 million and spending on fuel rose 0.1 percent to $635 million.

Spending on services climbed 1.2 percent to $168 million, while non-retail industries rose 1.1 percent to $1.12 billion.

The figures come after Paymark data showed a 3.5 percent increase in electronic card spending last month. Paymark systems account for about three-quarters of New Zealand’s electronic card transactions.

Unadjusted spending rose 5.4 percent to $5.3 billion from the same month a year earlier.

The number of transactions rose 3.9 percent to 100 million across all industries from January 2011.

(BusinessDesk)

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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