2020.03.1022:40:00UTC+00New Zealand February Overall Credit Card Spending Unchanged In February

New Zealand's overall credit card spending was flat on month, seasonally adjusted, in February, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - just shy of forecasts for 0.1 percent following the 0.3 percent gain in January.

Retail credit card spending gained 0.6 percent on month - beating forecasts for a decline of 0.3 percent following the 0.1 percent drop in the previous month.

Spending in the core retail industries (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) gained 0.8 percent on month.

By industry, the movements were: consumables, up NZ$51 million (2.4 percent); durables, up NZ$12 million (0.8 percent); motor vehicles (excluding fuel), up NZ$0.6 million (0.3 percent); fuel, down NZ$1.4 million (0.2 percent); apparel, down NZ$1.8 million (0.6 percent); and hospitality, down NZ$8.5 million (0.8 percent).

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail), was up by NZ$1.9 million (relatively flat) in February 2020. This follows a 0.2 percent increase in the previous month.

The non-retail (excluding services) category was down NZ$15 million (0.8 percent), and the services category fell NZ$3.4 million (1.1 percent) in February 2020.

Retail spending using electronic cards was NZ$5.7 billion, up 8.6 percent (NZ$452 million) from February 2019.

In actual terms, cardholders made 159 million transactions across all industries in February, with an average value of NZ$49 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$7.8 billion.