New Zealand Overall Credit Card Spending Climbs 0.6% In January

(RTTNews) - The total value of overall credit card spending in New Zealand jumped a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent on month in January, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday - following the 0.2 percent gain in December.

The value of retail credit card spending climbed 1.4 percent on month following the 0.5 percent increase in the previous month.

Credit card spending in the core retail industries (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) gained 1.0 percent in January after slipping 0.2 percent in December.

By industry the movements were: hospitality, up NZ$15 million (1.5 percent); durables, up NZ$14 million (1.2 percent); fuel, up NZ$9.0 million (1.5 percent); consumables, up NZ$6.5 million (0.3 percent); apparel, down NZ$0.4 million (0.1 percent); and motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down NZ$1.1 million (0.6 percent).

"Card spending in bars, cafes, restaurants, and takeaway shops led the rise in the hospitality industry," retail manager Sue Chapman said. "Students needing electronic devices and other back-to-school supplies, helped nudge up card spending in the durables industry in January."

The non-retail (excluding services) industry fell NZ$16 million (1.1 percent) and the services industry fell NZ$3.6 million (1.3 percent).

Cardholders made 141 million transactions across all industries in January with an average value of NZ$50 per transaction. The total amount spent across all transactions was NZ$7.0 billion.

Actual retail spending using electronic cards was NZ$5.3 billion in January 2018, up NZ$176 million (3.4 percent) from January 2017.