Spending on cars rebounds

Retail card spending on motor vehicles increased by $5.1 million – or 2.7 per cent – in July, when compared with the total consumers splashed out in the month prior.

The rebound in activity took the industry’s seasonally adjusted figure to $190m last month, the same as it achieved in May, 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 $8.1m, or 1.6 per cent.

However, July’s total also represented a drop of $17m, or 8.2 per cent, from the same month of 2023 when $207m was spent on motor vehicles using electronic cards.

The latest seasonally adjusted values show overall spending in the retail industries dropped $6.3m, or 0.1 per cent, between June and July this year.

In actual terms, cardholders made 161m transactions across all industries in July, with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $8.8 billion.