Spending on vehicles down $2.9m
Retail card spending on motor vehicles fell by $2.9 million – or 1.5 per cent – in August, when compared with the numbers seen in the month prior.
It took the industry’s seasonally adjusted total for last month to $186m, which is the second-lowest monthly figure of the past two years.
The tally was marginally better than the $185m achieved in June 2024, according to figures from Stats NZ.
August’s total also represented a drop of $26m, or 12.3 per cent, from the same month of 2023 when $212m was splurged on motor vehicles using electronic cards.
The latest seasonally adjusted values reveal that vehicles and hospitality were the only two categories to record a drop in retail card spending in August.
Consumer spending on fuel edged up $300,000, or 0.1 per cent, to reach $514m.
The overall amount forked out by consumers in the retail industries increased by $10m, or 0.2 per cent, to total $6.4 billion.
In actual terms, cardholders made 164m transactions across all industries in August, with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $9 billion.
