2019.06.1119:14:00UTC+00New Zealand Credit Card Spending +0.2% In May

The total value of credit card spending in New Zealand gained a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent on month in May, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - following the 0.4 percent increase in April.

Retail credit card spending dropped 0.5 percent on month versus expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent following the 0.6 percent gain in the previous month.

Core retail spending (excluding vehicle-related industries) fell 0.5 percent in May, after a 0.4 percent rise in April.

"Card spending has slowed over the last three months," retail statistics manager Sue Chapman said. "Since February 2019 we have seen relatively softer growth in the retail industries indicating an easing in domestic spending.

By industry, the movements were: durables, down 0.8 percent (NZ$10 million); consumables, down 0.4 percent (NZ$9 million); apparel, down 1.5 percent (NZ$4.7 million); fuel, down 0.4 percent (NZ$2.6 million); hospitality, relatively unchanged; and motor vehicles (excluding fuel), up 0.9 percent (NZ$1.6 million).

The non-retail (excluding services) category rose 0.9 percent (NZ$15 million) and the services category rose 1.9 percent (NZ$5 million) in May.

Cardholders made 151 million transactions across all industries in May 2019 - an average value of NZ$49 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$7.3 billion.