Spending on vehicles dips

Retail expenditure on motor vehicles using electronic cards declined by 1.2 per cent or $2.3 million last month, when compared with figures from September.

The seasonally adjusted total for the industry in October was $192m, which was also $5m lower than in the same month of 2024.

Of the six retail industries, only hospitality had a bigger month-on-month drop than vehicles after it fell $21m or 1.4 per cent to $1.45 billion.

Transactions for fuel rose by $2.5m or 0.5 per cent last month to $477m, reports Stats NZ, as overall retail spending nudged up 0.2 per cent or $11m to $6.9b.

Contributing to the total was spending in core retail sectors rising by 0.2 per cent and $10m over the same timescale to $6.24b. Consumables went up by $22m and 0.8 per cent to $2.82b.

In actual terms, cardholders made 181 million transactions across all industries in October with an average value of $54 per transaction. 

The total amount spent using plastic, which includes debit, credit, and charge cards, came in at $9.7b last month.