Steady increase in Gisborne credit card spending

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CONSUMERS here are increasingly using their debit and credit cards to make purchases, new data shows.

The latest figures from Paymark, which processes more than three-quarters of all electronic transactions, show monthly year-on-year consumer spending here rose by more than $3.7m last month, an increase of 9.3 percent from the same month last year.

That was down to a 9.7 percent increase in transactions, which totalled more than 970,000 over August.

A Paymark spokesman said nationally the recent figures pointed to continued moderate growth momentum in total but with mixed experiences amongst sectors and regions.

“The annual growth rate of underlying spending through Paymark for August was 6.8 percent, above the average of the first seven months of 2017.

“In seasonally-adjusted terms, the increase between July 2017 and August 2017 was 1.1 percent.

“Housing-related Paymark merchants picked up from July but the generally slower nature of the housing cycle is showing as annual growth rates are now running well below the 9.6 percent average of 2016.

“Also experiencing slower spending growth now are accommodation merchants— the annual growth rate slipping to 4.2 percent in August, down from the heady 18 percent averaged last year.

“Still experiencing strong growth include the food and liquor merchants (+8.6 percent) and the food and beverages services merchants (+10.2 percent), the first group being the retailers and wholesalers of food and liquor and the second group being the cafes, restaurants, clubs and bars.

“Motor vehicle and parts retailing (+10.5 percent) remains strong.

“The value of fuel spending is declining (-1.4 percent).