Core retail electronic card spending down in June

 After adjusting for seasonal effects, the core retail Electronic Card Transaction (ECT) series (whichexcludes the motor vehicle-related industries) decreased 1.2 percent in June 2009 compared with May2009, Statistics New Zealand said today.

This follows a 1.1 percent increase in May. The durables industry (includes furniture, hardware, and appliance retailing) was the main contributor to theJune decrease.

There were smaller falls in all other core retail industries in June, except for theconsumables industry (includes food, liquor, and chemist retailing), which was unchanged compared withMay 2009.

The seasonally adjusted values of transactions in the retail and total ECT series were down 1.0 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, in June.

These decreases were dominated by the decline in core retail, andoccurred despite small rises in the non-retail and motor vehicle-related industries.

The trends for the total and core retail series continued to increase in June though at slightly slower ratesthan for March and April 2009. Latest figures indicate that the growth rate for the retail series has flattened.

However, this latest trend estimate for the retail series may be revised and should be used with caution untilmore data are available.

Annual credit card use as a proportion of the total value of transactions continues to decline (with acorresponding increase in debit card use). Credit cards accounted for 45.2 percent of transactions in theyear to June 2009, which was the ninth consecutive month to show a decrease in the annualised total.

Geoff Bascand

Government Statistician
9 July 2009
END

See also Hot Off The Press information release Electronic Card Transactions: June 2009.