Electronic card spending flat in January

The seasonally adjusted total value of electronic card transactions was unchanged in January 2009 compared with December 2008, Statistics New Zealand said today.

This follows two months of decreases. Most industry groups showed lower sales in January, particularly fuel and durables retailing, but these were offset by increases in the non-retail and consumables industries.

Transactions in the retail industries were down 0.6 percent in January 2009, led by the falls in the fuel retailing and durables industries. This was the third consecutive month to show a decrease.

The core retail series (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) was down 0.2 percent; this follows a 0.2 percent increase in December. The January decrease was led by the durables industry, with consumables the only industry group to increase.

The trend series for both total transactions, and transactions in the retail industries, had been easing since mid-2008 and have been declining since August 2008. The core retail trend series began to ease at the same time and is now flat.

Statistics NZ has brought forward the release of the Electronic Card Transactions data to the seventh working day of each month. This has been made possible through the cooperation of the data providers, and streamlining of the publication. All information contained in past releases will continue to be available, but may be presented in an alternative format.