Total retail card spending increases

Total retail card spending increased 0.4 percent in October 2012, after removing seasonal fluctuations, Statistics New Zealand said today.  

"Although spending rose in most retail industries during October, fuel and durables were the only ones to have significant rises," acting industry and labour statistics manager Tehseen Islam said.

The three largest retail industry movements in October 2012 were:

• fuel, up 1.6 percent ($11 million).
• durables, up 0.7 percent ($7 million)
• consumables, down 0.6 percent ($9 million). This followed a fall of 0.7 percent ($11 million) in September.

Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) increased 0.2 percent in October 2012.
Total electronic card spending increased 0.4 percent in October 2012.

The trends for both the core retail and total series are now flat. The retail trend is still positive but has eased since June 2012.

See also:  Electronic Card Transactions: October 2012  –  Information release