Spending on vehicles flat

Retail card spending on motor vehicles fell by $500,000 – or 0.3 per cent – in February, when compared with the numbers seen in the month prior.

It took the industry’s seasonally adjusted figure for last month to $189 million, which represented a drop of $20m, or 9.6 per cent, from February 2024 when $209m was splurged on motor vehicles using electronic cards.

The latest seasonally adjusted values from Stats NZ show overall spending in the retail industries rose by $22m, or 0.3 per cent, between January and February this year.

Consumables, up $16m and 0.6 per cent, and apparel, climbing $3.4m and one per cent, helped drive the increase. 

Meanwhile, spending on fuel was unchanged and totalled $518m last month.

In actual terms, cardholders made 156m transactions across all industries in February, with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $8.6 billion.