NZ credit, debit card spending has record slide in November

Monday 5th January 2009

New Zealand consumer spending on credit and debit cards had a record drop in November, driven by decline in fuel prices as the price of crude oil fell.

The value of electronic transactions fell 2.8% from the previous month to NZ$4.67 billion, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Excluding fuel and auto-related spending, the value of transactions declined 0.5%.

There were 88 million card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants in November, according to the report.

Retailers including Warehouse Group and Briscoe Group have trimmed the profit forecasts amid waning consumer demand in an economy that may have rounded out four quarters of contraction.

Some economists say consumers will have more pain to bear through the first half of 2009, as companies eliminate jobs and property prices ease.

The NZSE Consumer Index, which tracks prices of retailers and other consumer-related companies, gained 0.3% today and is down 45% in the past 12 months. Warehouse fell 1.4% to NZ$3.47 and Briscoe dropped 1.2% to 80 cents. Michael Hill International rose 5.9% to 54 cents.

The decline in total card transactions was the lowest since the series began in 2002, eclipsing the previous record 1.4% in December 2005 caused by a processing glitch.

By Jonathan Underhill

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