New Xmas Eve Record, $4 Billion in December

5 January 2009

New Xmas Eve Record as Kiwis Spend $4 Billion in December

Paymark figures for December show New Zealanders are still spending more, despite the economic downturn, with a total of $4.04 billion across the network for the month and that more than 74 million transactions processed through the network during the same period.

While December 2008 figures didn’t mirror the 7-10% increases seen for the same period in the last couple of years, a number of records were broken during the month: more than 4 million transactions were processed in one single day; in the busiest second (12:33:45 on Wednesday, 24 December 2008) 127 transactions were processed; in the busiest minute 7,254 transactions were processed; and in the busiest hour 422, 915 transactions were processed. On Christmas Eve alone more than $216 million was spent across the country via the Paymark network.

Paul Whiston, Paymark Head of Sales and Customer Relations, says; “Judging from the huge retail rush on Christmas Eve it appears that as predicted, shoppers waited until the last minute to complete their shopping. While 2.6% is a fairly slow increase for December, it is interesting to see that Kiwis still managed to spend more than in previous years, despite the current economic climate.

“Our data shows that supermarkets and food retailers are still going strong, while a number of other sectors such as travel and tourism are being impacted by the downturn when compared to previous years,” he adds.

Regions with the highest growth in terms of value were South Canterbury (7.5%), Gisborne (6.4%) and Marlborough (6.3%). Regions with the slowest were Hawke’s Bay (0.4%) and Otago (1.0%).

Paymark processes more than three quarters of all in store electronic transactions in New Zealand.

ENDS

PAYMARK Regional Data (Dec 2008 vs Dec 2007)

Region / Volume Last Year / Volume Current Year / Volume Diff / Value Last Year / Value Current Year / Value Diff

Auckland & Northland / 26,544,404.00 / 28,178,387.00 / 6.2% / $1,542,236,616 / $1,574,631,448 / 2.1%
Waikato / 5,329,001.00 / 5,650,704.00 / 6.0% / $279,634,657 / $290,447,768 / 3.9%
BOP / 4,839,354.00 / 5,062,772.00 / 4.6% / $262,946,017 / $267,998,999 / 1.9%
Gisborne / 734,629.00 / 791,987.00 / 7.8% / $35,186,547 / $37,438,736 / 6.4%
Taranaki and Taupo / 1,841,271.00 / 1,949,705.00 / 5.9% / $91,615,144 / $96,749,405 / 5.6%
Hawkes Bay / 2,185,938.00 / 2,279,394.00 / 4.3% / $116,327,465 / $116,814,414 / 0.4%
Wanganui / 861,920.00 / 892,380.00 / 3.5% / $41,776,064 / $42,405,370 / 1.5%
Palmerston North / 2,337,977.00 / 2,443,450.00 / 4.5% / $124,639,118 / $126,433,751 / 1.4%
Wairarapa / 716,289.00 / 765,177.00 / 6.8% / $37,658,519 / $38,791,245 / 3.0%
Wellington / 7,585,167.00 / 8,170,544.00 / 7.7% / $400,470,042 / $413,369,195 / 3.2%
Nelson / 1,541,106.00 / 1,597,061.00 / 3.6% / $86,199,957 / $87,857,941 / 1.9%
Marlborough / 910,603.00 / 995,821.00 / 9.4% / $52,288,721 / $55,603,957 / 6.3%
West Coast / 534,000.00 / 566,229.00 / 6.0% / $33,402,498 / $34,279,100 / 2.6%
Canterbury / 8,249,664.00 / 8,735,276.00 / 5.9% / $465,997,531 / $479,132,798 / 2.8%
South Canterbury / 1,098,824.00 / 1,180,474.00 / 7.4% / $60,735,770 / $65,272,374 / 7.5%
Otago / 3,569,256.00 / 3,760,270.00 / 5.4% / $206,503,924 / $208,515,385 / 1.0%
Southland / 1,671,239.00 / 1,771,517.00 / 6.0% / $97,539,750 / $100,420,786 / 3.0%

New Zealand / 70,550,642.00 / 74,791,148.00 / 6.0% / $3,935,158,338 / $4,036,162,670 / 2.6%

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