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Vehicle spending slides

New statistics show consumers have been forking out millions of dollars less in the automotive sector.
Posted on 16 July, 2024
Vehicle spending slides

Retail card spending on motor vehicles fell by $5.3 million – or 2.8 per cent – in June, when compared with the numbers seen in the month prior.

It took the industry’s seasonally adjusted figure for last month to $184m. This is the third consecutive drop and the lowest monthly total of the past two years, according to figures from Stats NZ.

June’s total also represented a drop of $36m, or 16.4 per cent, from the same month of 2023 when $220m was splurged on motor vehicles using electronic cards.

When comparing the June quarter with the March quarter of this year, spending on vehicles dropped $61m or 9.8 per cent.

The latest seasonally adjusted values show all retail categories except consumables suffered a month-on-month drop in retail card spending in June.

Consumer spending on fuel dropped $24m, or 4.6 per cent, to $505m over the same period.

The overall total forked out by consumers in the retail industries decreased by $40m, or 0.6 per cent, to $6.4 billion.

In actual terms, cardholders made 157m transactions across all industries in June, with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using cards was $8.5 billion.