Hawke's Bay retail spending last month increased 1.9 per cent in value on March 2010, according to recent Paymark statistics.
The Hawke's Bay figures were the third lowest in the country, behind Marlborough and earthquake-afflicted Christchurch which recorded a 9.9 per cent drop in value for its transactions.
Nationally, spending was 4.8per cent above March 2010. Spending in the discretionary goods category retail outlets (excluding food, alcohol and petrol stations) had been increasing 0.9 per cent annually but dropped to 0.4 per cent below the figures recorded for February and March 2010.
Paymark head of sales and marketing, Paul Whiston, said the national numbers were not a surprise due to the Christchurch earthquake, but there were larger forces at work, such as the housing downturn, higher food and petrol prices and a growing trend towards saving, not spending.
"People are paying down debt rather than spending the money they have left over after all the necessities are paid for," he said. "With the 'must-haves' like food and petrol getting pricier, people are having to make difficult choices."
A continued trend nationally was the increase in the use of debit cards over credit cards. Debit card usage rose 6.5 per cent and credit card usage declined 2.5 per cent.
The Paymark network processes over 75 per cent of electronic transactions in New Zealand on behalf of more than 50 card issuers.
