Sharechat Logo

NZ credit, debit card spending climbs 3 percent in August on record-spike in fuel expenditure

Tuesday 11th September 2012

Text too small?

New Zealanders ramped up spending on their plastic cards last month after a record-spike in expenditure at the petrol pump.

The seasonally adjusted value of total retail industry transactions on electronic cards rose 3 percent to$4.27 billion in August, according to Statistics New Zealand. Spending on fuel jumped 11 percent to $689 million, its biggest monthly increase since the series began a decade ago.

"Part of this is likely to reflect the steady increase in petrol prices over the month," ASB economist Jane Turner said in a note. "We estimate petrol prices increased around 6 percent over August, which suggests there was an increase in sales volume of petrol as well."

Local retailers have had to contend with softer household demand in recent years as historically low interest rates and persistently high unemployment encourages people to repay debt rather than ramp up spending. Statistics NZ said other vehicle related expenses rose 0.8 percent to $114 million in August.

That comes after figures showed consumer spending in the second quarter was underscored by record expenditure on cars and auto-parts. New Zealand's total core spending on electronic cards, which excludes motor vehicle-related industries, rose 1 percent to $3.46 billion, boosted by an increase across all industry groups.

The largest increase in card spending was on consumables up 0.8 percent or $12 million to $1.52 billion. ASB's Turner said the figures supported growing consumer confidence in recent months, and is likely to be supported by a rising number of house sales.

"While the substantial increase in retail card spending over August was largely driven by higher spending on fuel as petrol prices increased over the month, there are also encouraging signs of an improvement in underlying household spending," she said.

The total value of electronic card spending, including services and non-retail industries, rose 2.4 percent to $5.62 billion. Unadjusted spending on electronic cards advanced 6.3 percent to $5.48 billion in August.

BusinessDesk.co.nz



  General Finance Advertising    

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:
Your name:
Your email:
Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Related News:

SML - Synlait Milk Limited - Trading Halt of Securities
AIA - Auckland Airport announces board chair changes
AIA - Auckland Airport announces board chair changes
CEN - Tauhara commissioning progress update
FPH initiates voluntary limited recall
March 28th Morning Report
KFL Celebrates 20 Years of Excellence in Investment Mgmt.
SVR - Savor FY24 Earnings Guidance & Change in Banking Partner
NZK - NZ King Salmon Investments Limited FY24 Results
March 27th Morning Report