Consumers lift debit card spending

Thursday 10th September 2009

New Zealand consumers increased spending on debit cards last month, with an improvement in sales of big ticket items such as furniture and hardware.

Figures from Paymark, which processes more than 75% of the nation’s electronic transactions, show a 0.7% increase in last 28 days of August, the second monthly advance of that size. The growth rate in the first half of the year was 0.3%.

Those sectors hardest hit by the recession showed some signs of improvement, with transactions at furniture retailers improving to zero from declines earlier this year, and hardware gaining 7%.

Credit card growth was 1.5% while debit card transactions climbed 8.3%, suggesting consumers are more inclined to spending their own money than buy on credit.

Regions with the fastest growth annual growth during August were Marlborough at 4.7% and South Canterbury at 2.9%, while Palmerston North posted a 1.8% decline and Waikato and Bay of Plenty fell 0.8%.

Businesswire.co.nz

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