2021.03.0922:49:00UTC+00New Zealand Electronic Retail Card Spending Sinks 2.5% In February

The value of electronic retail card spending was down a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent on month in February, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - following the 0.3 percent decline in January.

Spending in the core retail industries was down 2.5 percent on month.

By industry, the movements were: fuel, down NZ$4.0 million (0.8 percent); durables, down NZ$7.1 million (0.4 percent); motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down NZ$7.2 million (3.6 percent); apparel, down NZ$9.2 million (2.8 percent); and consumables, down NZ$17 million (0.8 percent).

On a yearly basis, overall retail card spending was down 5.3 percent after climbing 1.9 percent in the previous month.

Cardholders made 146 million transactions across all industries in February, with an average value of NZ$49 per transaction.