Fuel spending climbs

Electronic card transactions resulted in spending on motor vehicles dropping by about $600,000, or 0.3 per cent, in August when compared to July.

On the flipside, such expenditure on fuel rose by $6.4 million and 1.3 per cent over the same timescale.

Other retail categories recorded slight decreases in spending – durables by 1.6 per cent, hospitality by 1.7 per cent, consumables by 0.4 per cent and apparel by two per cent.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories of services and other non-retail, decreased from July. In August, they went down by $48m or 0.5 per cent.

In actual terms, cardholders made 172 million transactions across all industries last month with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $9.4 billion, reports Stats NZ.