Durables and consumables lift retail card spending

Durables and consumables lift retail card spending – Media release

11 March 2013

Shoppers in New Zealand spent more using debit and credit cards in February 2013, Statistics New Zealand said today.

When adjusted for seasonal effects, the value of electronic card spending in the retail industries increased 0.8 percent in February 2013. This is the fifth consecutive monthly increase, and the largest since August 2012.

“There was increased spending in half of the retail industries in February,” industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said.

"Most of this extra spending was on durables and consumables. Fuel was the only industry where there was a notable fall in spending."

The largest retail movements were:
• durables, up 1.4 percent ($15 million)
• fuel, down 1.5 percent ($10 million)
• consumables, up 0.6 percent ($9 million).

The durables industry includes furniture, hardware, and appliance retailing. The consumables industry includes food and liquor retailing.

Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) increased 0.7 percent in February 2013.

The total value of electronic card spending increased 0.8 percent.

Trends for the value of transactions in the total, retail, and core retail series have all generally been positive since these series began in October 2002. For each series, the rate of increase has strengthened in recent months.

In actual (unadjusted) terms, there were 101 million transactions in February 2013, with an average value of $54. The total amount spent across all transactions was $5.4 billion.

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Electronic Card Transactions: February 2013
•
• Open the attached files
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1303/ElectronicCardTransactionsFeb13.pdf

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1303/ectfeb13tables.xls

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