New Zealanders increased their spending on debit and credit cards in January, led by consumables and durables, while spending on fuel fell for a third straight month, reflecting the drop in global oil prices.
The value of core retail sales on electronic cards, which strips out spending on fuel andvehicle related items, rose 0.9 per cent seasonally adjusted in January, to $3.88 billion, following December's 0.2 per cent gain, Statistics New Zealand said.
Including fuel and vehicle spending, total retail spending dropped 0.4 per cent to $4.69 billion, led by a 6.7 per cent drop in fuel to a more-than two-year low of $663 million, following the global slump in oil prices.
Total spending, which includes non-retail industries and services, rose 0.1 per cent in the month to $6.22 billion.
The price of oil tumbled from its high in the middle of last year, as oversupply led to an oil glut while Middle East producers engaged in a price war to keep their market share. While the price has begun to recover, the drop to six-year lows has been blamed as a contributing factor to ongoing low interest rates, as the cheaper petrol prices keep a lid on global inflation.
Today's figures show consumables, which is the largest measure in the series, rose for the fourth consecutive month, up 1.3 per cent in January to $1.69 billion, while durables snapped two months of declines to rise 0.9 per cent to $1.13 billion. Hospitality rose 0.3 per cent to $778 million and apparel fell 1.9 per cent to $286 million.
On an unadjusted basis, core retail spending climbed 7.6 per cent from the same month the previous year to $3.95 billion, with hospitality surged 10.7 per cent to $837 million, consumables advanced 8.3 per cent to $1.72 billion and durables climbed 5.6 per cent to $1.11 billion. Apparel rose 1.5 per cent to $277 million.
Total retail sales rose 4 per cent to $4.75 billion, while fuel dropped 13.4 per cent from January 2014 to $663 million. Total spending increased 3.7 per cent from a year earlier to $6.22 billion.
The number of core retail transactions rose 10.7 per cent from January a year earlier to 92 million, and was up 9.9 per cent across all industries to 125 million. The average value per transaction fell to $50 from $54 in December.
Spending on debit cards made up 54.9 per cent of total transactions edging up from 54.3 in December.
