Spending on cars jumps $10m

Retail card spending on motor vehicles increased by $10 million – or 5.2 per cent – in July, when compared with the total consumers splashed out in the month prior.

The uptick in activity took the industry’s seasonally adjusted figure to $203m last month, the highest monthly figure since the $209m achieved in May 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.

Of those six categories, consumables and hospitality were the other risers, while fuel, apparel and durables were all down month-on-month. Spending on fuel dropped by $600,000, or 0.1 per cent. 

July’s total for motor vehicles also represented an increase of $7m, or 3.6 per cent, from the same month of 2024 when $196m was spent using electronic cards.

The latest seasonally adjusted values show overall electronic card spending last month was up $59m, or 0.6 per cent, when compared with June’s figures.

In actual terms, cardholders made 173 million transactions across all industries in July, with an average value of $54 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $9.3 billion.