New Zealand Overall Credit Card Spending Sinks 0.3% In July

Overall electronic spending in New Zealand fell a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent on month in July, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday.

That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.2 percent following the 0.1 percent increase in June.

Retail credit card spending eased 0.1 percent on month - again missing forecasts for a gain of 0-.5 percent following the flat reading in the previous month.

Core retail spending (excluding vehicle-related industries) fell 0.5 percent in July, after a 0.3 percent rise in June.

By industry, the movements were: fuel, up NZ$15 million (2.7 percent); durables, down NZ$11 million (0.9 percent); apparel, down NZ$10 million (3.2 percent); vehicles (excluding fuel), down NZ$1.6 million (0.9 percent); consumables, down NZ$1.6 million (0.1 percent); and hospitality, relatively unchanged.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail), was down NZ$23 million (0.3 percent) in July 2019. This follows no change in June 2019.

The non-retail (excluding services) category fell NZ$18 million (1.1 percent) and the services category increased NZ$0.6 million (0.2 percent) in July 2019.

In actual terms, cardholders made 147 million transactions across all industries in July 2019 with an average value of NZ$49 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was NZ$7.2 billion.