New Zealand Electronic Card Retail Sales Unchanged In February

(RTTNews) - The value of electronic card retail sales in New Zealand was roughly flat in February on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, Statistics New Zealand said on Thursday - after rising 2.6 percent in the previous month.

By spending category, the movements were: durables, up NZ$48 million (2.9 percent); consumables, up NZ$32 million (1.2 percent); fuel, up NZ$13 million (2.3 percent); motor vehicles (excluding fuel), up NZ$4.5 million (2.2 percent); and apparel, down NZ$11 million (3.0 percent).

Spending in the core retail industries eased 0.3 percent on month.

On a yearly basis, sales jumped 11.7 percent after gaining 2.7 percent in January.