Retail card spending up in September

Te Whanganui a Tara - Retail card spending in Aotearoa rose 1.4 percent last month, when adjusted for seasonal effects, Stats NZ says.

Spending rose across a majority of retail industries, with the largest contribution coming from consumables, up $20 million (0.8 percent). Consumables include items such as groceries (supermarkets) and liquor.

People continued to spend more on items such as food and liquor. This is the third consecutive monthly increase for consumables. Food prices have gone up in the past few months, which can impact card spending on groceries.

In actual terms, total card spending reached $8.6 billion, up 32.9 percent from September 2021.

Spending on hospitality services and durables made the largest contribution to the annual increase, as spending continued to rise and recover from the impact of having New Zealand under alert levels 3 and 4 in September last year. Durables include non-essential items such as furniture, hardware, and appliances.

Seasonally adjusted card spending in retail industries increased $312 million (1.7 percent) while the total card spending increased $912 million (4.0 percent) from the June 2022 quarter.

Card spending increased across most retail industries, with large increases seen in fuel and consumables.

Actual retail spending was $19 billion in the September quarter, up 16.7 percent from the September 2021 quarter.

This reflects large annual increases in hospitality and durables. Spending on these items were hard hit last year as the country moved to alert level 4 restrictions in mid-August 2021 and was in various alert levels in September 2021.

The electronic card transactions series covers all debit, credit, and charge-card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants. It can be used to indicate changes in consumer spending and economic activity.

The non-retail (excluding services) category increased by $28 million (1.4 percent) from August 2022. This category includes medical and other health care, travel and tour arrangement, postal and courier delivery, and other non-retail industries.

The services category was down $1 million (0.3 percent). This category includes repair and maintenance, and personal care, funeral, and other personal services.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail), increased from August 2022, up $218 million (2.5 percent).

Spending in the hospitality industry increased by $626 million between September 2021 and last month.

In actual terms, cardholders made 158 million transactions across all industries in September 2022, with an average value of $54 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $8.6 billion.

By industry, the movements were:

• fuel, up $281 million (16.4 percent)

• consumables, up $147 million (2.0 percent)

• apparel, up $57 million (5.6 percent)

• durables, up $39 million (0.8 percent)

• motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down $5 million (0.8 percent).

• The non-retail (excluding services) category was up $163 million (2.8 percent), and the services category was up $57 million (5.8 percent).