Fuel lifts retail card spending in August

11 September 2018

Increased fuel spending by consumers helped lift overall retail card spending in August 2018, Stats NZ said today.

All retail categories increased, with a 1.0 percent rise in total retail card spending when adjusted for seasonal effects.

“Fuel prices rose in August compared with July, contributing to the lift in fuel spending,” retail statistics manager Sue Chapman said. “Fuel spending on electronic cards has generally risen over the last year.”

“Apart from fuel, other retail categories also had increased spending in August,” Ms Chapman added. “This helped lift overall retail spending to its largest monthly rise since March.”

Card spending rose in all six retail industries. The largest movements were for:
• fuel, up $27 million or 4.1 percent (fuel values for July were revised downwards after receiving updated data)
• durables, up $15 million or 1.2 percent
• consumables (grocery and liquor), up $12 million or 0.6 percent.

Core retail spending (which excludes vehicle-related industries) rose 0.7 percent in August 2018, after a 0.3 percent rise in July 2018. This is the fourth consecutive rise in core retail spending.

Actual retail spending using electronic cards was $5.2 billion in August 2018, up $306 million (6.3 percent) from August 2017.

Values are only available at the national level and are not adjusted for price changes.

For more information about these statistics:

• Visit Electronic card transactions: August 2018
• See CSV files for download

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