August electronic card spending up

After adjusting for seasonal effects, the total Electronic Card Transaction (ECT) series increased 1.2percent in August 2007 compared with July 2007, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The main contributors to this increase were the consumables, durables and hospitality industries.

Seasonally adjusted sales for motor vehicle-related and non-retailing industries were flat in Augustcompared with July.

The overall trend was 8.0 percent higher in August 2007 than in August 2006.

This increase is the same asthat recorded for the twelve months to July 2007, which was the smallest annual increase since the seriesbegan in October 2002.

The trend reflects not only changes in spending and prices but also changes inmerchants' and customers' use of payment methods.

In the retail industries, the seasonally adjusted value of card transactions increased 1.4 percent in August2007 compared with July 2007.

The seasonally adjusted core retail Electronic Card Transactionseries increased 1.7 percent over the same period.In August 2007, there were 81 million electronic card transactions totalling $4.6 billion.

The Electronic Card Transaction series measures the number and value of debit, credit and charge cardtransactions with New Zealand-based merchants.

It is a census of all card transactions processed withinNew Zealand.

Transactions by overseas card-holders in New Zealand are included; transactions by NewZealand card-holders overseas are excluded.

The data are being released as an experimental series and Statistics NZ acknowledges the cooperation ofthe private sector in providing the data for publication.