Electronic spending down in February

The amount New Zealanders and international visitors spent on their credit and debit cards fell in February, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The total value of electronic card transactions was down 0.3 percent in February 2012, when adjusted for seasonal effects. This follows a rise of 0.9 percent in January.

"There were mixed results this month, with the value of transactions falling in four of the eight industry groups," industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said. "This result follows rises in all industries in January."
Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) was down 0.5 percent in February 2012, following a 1.0 percent rise in January.

Total retail, which includes the two vehicle-related industries, was down 0.7 percent in February 2012.

Trends for the total and retail series continue to increase, although the rate of growth has eased in recent months. The core retail trend has generally been increasing since the series began in October 2002, but has been flat since mid-2011.