Retail spending lifts electronic card transactions

The amount of money New Zealanders and visitors to the country spent with retailers using debit and credit cards rose in April, Statistics New Zealand said today. The value of transactions across all retail industries was up 0.8 percent when adjusted for seasonal effects.

"Of the six retail industries, the three that reported rises accounted for most of card spending," acting industry and labour statistics manager Tehseen Islam said. "Consumables had the largest rise followed by the durables and hospitality industries."

Consumables was up a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent ($16 million) in April 2012. The trend for this industry has been increasing since November 2011.

The total value of electronic card transactions was up 0.6 percent.

Trends for the core retail and total retail series have generally been positive since the series began in 2002.

The total series trend for all electronic card transactions is positive, but the rate of increase has eased since late 2011.

See also:
Electronic Card Transactions: April 2012  –  Information release