Electronic card transactions flat

Friday 10th June 2011

The seasonally adjusted value of total electronic card transactions was flat (down just 0.1%) in May 2011 compared with April 2011, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The value of transactions rose in five industry groups, but fell in three.

Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) was also flat, down 0.1% in May 2011. This follows increases of 1.1% and 1.5% in March and April, respectively. The biggest movements this month were in durables (down 1.1%) and hospitality (up 1.6%). The durables industry includes furniture, hardware, and appliance retailing; and the hospitality industry includes accommodation, bars, cafes, and restaurants.

When the two vehicle-related industries are included, the value of transactions in retail decreased 0.8%. This decrease was led by fuel retailing (down 4.1%), its first fall since July 2010.

The two industries that fall outside retail both rose in May 2011, resulting in the total value of transactions remaining flat.

Trends for the value of transactions in the total and retail series have been increasing since January 2009, and the rate of increase has been strong in recent months. The core retail trend has generally been increasing since the series began in October 2002, and the rate of increase has been fairly constant since December 2010.

This information release includes data for Canterbury. However, as the data is not broken down by region we are not able to separate or estimate the impact of the recent earthquakes on the data.

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