2022.03.2108:05:00UTC+00New Zealand Credit Card Spending Drops First Time In 5 Months

New Zealand credit card spending dropped for the first time in five months in February as authorities began to put in place restrictions after the number of Omicron infections rose, data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand revealed on Monday.

Total credit card billings declined 2.6 percent monthly in February, after remaining unchanged in January. This was the first the decline since September, when spending shrank 5.4 percent.

Domestic billings rose 3.2 percent monthly to NZ$3.173 billion, while overseas billings fell to NZ$291 million in February, data showed.

The downturn was similar to August 2021 when the country was in Alert level 4 lockdown, the bank said.

On a yearly basis, total billings rose 1.0 percent in February, after a 5.1 percent increase in the previous month.