Fuel boosts electronic card spending

In May 2012, New Zealanders and visitors to the country increased their spending using debit and credit cards by 1.2 percent, when adjusted for seasonal effects, Statistics New Zealand said today. The value of card transactions rose in seven of the eight industry groups, with fuel rising the most, up 4.6 percent ($28 million).

"This month's increase in fuel spending was the biggest percentage increase since October 2010," industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said.

Three of the remaining seven industries also had reasonably large rises in May 2012:

• durables, up 1.1 percent ($11 million)
• apparel, up 3.6 percent ($10 million)
• non-retail (excluding services), up 0.8 percent ($9 million).

Consumables had a relatively small change in May 2012, down 0.1 percent ($1 million). This followed five consecutive months of strong rises.

Total retail spending rose 0.9 percent, and core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) rose 0.8 percent in May 2012.

Trends for the core retail, total retail, and total series have generally been rising since the series began in 2002. The rate of increase has strengthened for all three series in recent months.

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