Spending on cars hits six-month high
Retail card spending on motor vehicles increased by $5.9 million – or 3.2 per cent – in January, when compared with the total consumers splashed out in the month prior.
The rebound in activity took the industry’s seasonally adjusted figure to $189m last month, the highest it has been since July last year, according to data from Stats NZ.
Spending on motor vehicles, excluding fuel, recorded the biggest month-on-month percentage change of the six retail industries covered in the latest statistics.
Fuel was next after rising by $900,000, or 0.2 per cent, while figures for the other industries were all down.
Meanwhile, January’s total for motor vehicles represented a drop of $15m, or 7.4 per cent, from the same month of 2024 when $204m was spent using electronic cards.
The latest seasonally adjusted values show overall spending in the retail industries last month dropped $103m, or 1.6 per cent, when compared with December’s figures.
In actual terms, cardholders made 166 million transactions across all industries in January, with an average value of $56 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $9.3 billion.
