Card spending rises in all retail industries

Card spending rises in all retail industries

11 June 2014

Retail spending using electronic cards increased by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in May 2014, Statistics New Zealand said today.

"Spending rose in all six retail industries during May, the first time this has occurred since October 2013," business indicators manager Neil Kelly said.

Fuel and consumables had the largest rises of the retail industries. Spending on fuel was up 2.8 percent ($21 million), while consumables spending increased 1.1 percent ($18 million).

Core retail spending (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) rose 1.0 percent in May 2014.

Spending also rose for the two non-retail industries (services and non-retail) in May, resulting in a 1.7 percent rise in the total value of transactions.

Trends for the total, retail, and core retail series have all generally been increasing since October 2002.

In unadjusted terms, a total of 121 million transactions were made across all industries in May, with an average value of $51. The total amount spent across all transactions was $6.2 billion.

For more information about these statistics: Visit Electronic Card Transactions: May 2014

ENDS

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