Electronic card spending increases in April

The seasonally adjusted value of total electronic card spending increased 1.7 percent in April 2011, Statistics New Zealand said today. This increase was due to the value of transactions rising in all industry groups except services, which was flat.

Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) increased by 1.6 percent in April 2011. There were rises in all core retail industries in April 2011, led by consumables (up 2.3 percent) and hospitality (up 2.4 percent). The consumables industry includes food, liquor, and chemist 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 increased 1.5 percent. Fuel retailing recorded its smallest monthly rise since August 2010, up just 1.0 percent.   

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

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.

Geoff Bascand 10 May 2011

Government Statistician