Overall credit card spending in New Zealand added a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent on month in June, Statistics New Zealand said on Thursday – following a 0.2 percent increase in May.
Retail credit card spending was flat on month, missing expectations for a gain of 0.7 percent following the 0.5 percent decline in May.
Core retail spending (excluding vehicle-related industries) rose 0.4 percent in June after a 0.5 percent fall in May.
By industry, the movements were: durables, up NZ$22 million (1.7 percent); apparel, up NZ$6.5 million (2.1 percent); vehicles (excluding fuel), up NZ$0.1 million (0.1 percent); consumables, down NZ$5.4 million (0.3 percent); hospitality, down NZ$6.2 million (0.6 percent); and fuel, down NZ$26 million (4.3 percent).
Retail spending using electronic cards was NZ$5.1 billion, up 1.1 percent (NZ$57 million) from June 2018.
The non-retail (excluding services) category rose NZ$11 million (0.7 percent) and the services category fell NZ$0.6 million (0.2 percent) in June 2019.
In actual terms, cardholders made 142 million transactions across all industries in June 2019 with an average value of NZ$49 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$6.9 billion.
For the second quarter of 2019, overall credit card spending was up 0.5 percent, retail spending was up 0.3 percent and core retail spending rose 0.7 percent.
“Retail card spending has slowed over the last three quarters, after a strong rise in the September 2018 quarter,” retail statistics manager Sue Chapman said.
By industry, the quarterly movements were: consumables, up NZ$49 million (0.8 percent); hospitality, up NZ$28 million (0.9 percent); durables, up NZ$21 million (0.5 percent); fuel, up NZ$8.5 million (0.5 percent); apparel, down NZ$0.2 million (relatively unchanged); and motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down NZ$0.3 million (relatively unchanged).
The non-retail (excluding services) category rose NZ$26 million (0.6 percent) and the services category was relatively unchanged from the March 2019 quarter.
In actual terms, the total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$21 billion, up NZ$643 million (3.1 percent) from the June 2018 quarter.
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