The total value of electronic card transactions (ECT) with New Zealand-based merchants fell a seasonally adjusted 0.6 per cent last month from May.
The figures released today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) show further signs of a squeeze on consumer spending under the impact of rising fuel prices.
The trend value for the ECT series had its slowest annual increase since the series started in October 2002, to be 5.6 per cent higher in June than a year earlier.
The 80 million ECTs last month had a value of $4.3 billion, compared to 77 million transactions with a value of $4.2 billion in June 2007, SNZ said.
The retail ECT series, which accounted for 71m of the total transactions, was 0.4 per cent lower seasonally adjusted last month, while the trend for the subset was also the lowest increase recorded - 5.5 per cent higher in June than a year earlier.
The annual rate of increase in the retail industries trend had been decreasing steadily since last October when it was 8.5 per cent, SNZ said.
The trend for the retail ECT series had flattened since January, with the durables and consumables industries the main contributors to the decrease.
Decreases were also recorded last month for the apparel and hospitality industries. Those decreases were partially offset by an increase in the fuel retailing industry.
The core retail industries series, which exclude the vehicle-related industries and had 60m transactions last month, was down a seasonally adjusted 1.2 per cent last month from May.
The trend in the core retail ECT series appeared to have declined in recent months although more data was needed to confirm that, SNZ said. It was 1.7 per cent higher last month from June 2007, the smallest recorded annual increase.
Pointing to the impact of fuel price rises, SNZ said the trend for the core retail series had started to level off after about last September, while for the retail series the trend had continued to increase.
The main difference between the two ECT retail series was that automotive fuel retailing - which made up about 80 per cent of the value of the difference between the two series - was not included in the core retail series, SNZ said.
- NZPA
