It's beginning to feel like Christmas shopping

GISBORNE retailers are on track to record another bumper Christmas, latest figures show.

New data from Paymark, which processes more than 75 percent of electronic transactions, show Gisborne consumers last month spent $41.9 million on credit and debit cards here.

That was a rise of 9.7 percent on the same time last year and the second largest increase in New Zealand.

Last year Gisborne recorded the largest increase in spending in the last week before Christmas, and last month’s figures indicate it could do so again.

"Christmas is fast approaching and the shopping rush is starting to build. The pre-Christmas build-up starts gradually in November and climbs to a frenzy of activity in the last few days,” a Paymark spokesman said.

“Based on 2006, when Christmas Day last fell on a Monday, the busiest shopping day is likely to be the Friday before Christmas this year (23 December), as was the case in 2016 as well. But generally the entire last week is busy.

“Taking insights from Paymark’s 2016 records, national spending is likely to rise to 156% of the weekly average of the first 10 months of the year. The frenzy is relatively more in the regions, including in Gisborne (173 percent), Hawke’s Bay (171 percent) and Nelson (167 percent) in 2016. By way of contrast, while still busy, the last week before Christmas in Wellington was only 49 percent above average in 2016.”