2019.02.1120:30:00UTC+00New Zealand January Overall Credit Card Spending Jumps 2.0%

Overall credit card spending in New Zealand climbed a seasonally adjusted 2.0 percent on month in January, Statistics New Zealand said on Tuesday.

That beat expectations for a gain of 1.6 percent following the 1.9 percent contraction in December.

Retail credit card spending was up 1.8 percent on month - also beating forecasts for 1.4 percent following the 2.3 percent decline in the previous month.

Spending in the core retail industries - which excludes the auto-related industries - was up 2.2 percent.

By industry the movements were: durables, up NZ$64 million (5.1 percent); apparel, up NZ$8.6 million (2.9 percent); hospitality, up NZ$4.1 million (0.4 percent); consumables, up NZ$3.2 million (0.2 percent); vehicles (excluding fuel), up NZ$1.1 million (0.6 percent); and fuel, down NZ$2.8 million (0.5 percent).

The non-retail (excluding services) category rose NZ$15 million (1.0 percent) and the services category rose NZ$0.4 million (0.1 percent). The non-retail (excluding services) category includes travel, health, and wholesaling.

In actual terms, cardholders made 148 million transactions across all industries in January, with an average of NZ$50 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$7.3 billion.