Gisborne spending continues above average

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GISBORNE continues to stay above the national average in retail spending.

New figures released by Paymark, which processes 75 percent of all eftpos transactions, show Gisborne increased 7.4 percent from the same time last year with $46.2 million spent through Paymark terminals in January.

The number of times plastic cards were used also rose, up 8 percent to 1.11 million, an average of $41.62 a spend.

Paymark communications manager Paul Brislen said the latest national figures showed three trends. The first was that smaller regions led the way with swiping their cards.

“Spending in Auckland/Northland is still growing but at a slower rate than in early 2017 and slower than in other regions at 3.9 percent.

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“The highest annual underlying growth rates were recorded by merchants in Marlborough (16.4 percent), Southland (13.8 percent), Wanganui (11.5 percent), West Coast (11.2 percent) and Wairarapa (11 percent).”

The second trend was the shift to paywave, where cards do not touch the machine (called contactless transactions), which increased almost 20 percent or 41.5 million payments.

“The third trend was a generally falling average transaction value, consistent with a low general inflation rate of late.

“The average transaction size of $47.36 was 2.2 percent lower than 12 months earlier.”