2019.11.1103:57:00UTC+00New Zealand Retail Card Spending Falls In October

Total retail card spending in New Zealand declined for the first time in five months, driven by hardware and appliances sales, figures from Statistics New Zealand showed Monday.

Retail card spending fell 0.6 percent on month in the October, after a 0.2 percent rise in September.

The biggest declined was seen in hardware, appliances, department stores, and pharmaceuticals and those of groceries and liquor sales in October.

Core retail spending, excluding vehicle-related industries, also decreased 0.6 percent in October, after a 0.4 percent rise in the prior month.

"The falls in spending on longer-lasting goods and day-to-day food and liquor shows how variable these industries can be from month to month," Retail statistics manager Sue Chapman said.

However, compared with the year before, overall card spending has been fairly steady over the last year, Chapman added.