$98m spent in three weeks

Shoppers in Hawke's Bay are spending up large this Christmas.

Hawke's Bay shoppers are joining in the last-minute Christmas rush, with spending up significantly for December.

Shoppers in the region spent $98.3 million in the first three weeks of December, up 5.5 per cent on the same period last year, latest Paymark figures show.

The company, which processes around three-quarters of New Zealand's electronic transactions, said shoppers spent more than $3.5 billion on their eftpos cards nationwide - an increase of 6.9 per cent on last December.

Last Friday was the busiest day of the year so far, with $235.6 million through the tills, up 5.7 per cent on the same day in 2012.

Bay Plaza manager Robyn Burns told Hawke's Bay Today the centre had not yet hit the last-minute shopping rush but foot traffic was well up on last year.

"I think people have been reasonably organised this year.

"A lot of people finished work on Friday, so they have had a bit of time to get organised," she said yesterday.

Although the centre was busy, shoppers were relaxed and were taking time out to eat between spending.

She expected a rush of more "stressy shoppers" through today.

The centre will close at 6pm today but Kmart will stay open until 10pm.

Paymark head of sales and marketing Paul Whiston said the usual pre-Christmas jump continued last week, with Kiwis spending more than $1.3 billion between December 15-21.

"This is a strong performance, and growth so far for December is still ahead of the year-to-date average.

"The growth rates this December have been higher than we have experienced in a number of years."

However, the annual growth rate has slowed as the month progressed, from 8.6 per cent in the first week of December to a 6.9 per cent average over the month-to-date. That could either indicate better planning, or shoppers relying on the last two days before Christmas to get everything done, he said.

Alternatively, shoppers might have bought their big ticket items at the start of the month, and left the stocking fillers until the last week, he said.

"It's been a really busy sustained period, so there hasn't been a frenzy."

Growth was recorded across a number of sectors, including accommodation (11.9 per cent), restaurants, bars and cafes (10.4 per cent), takeaways (10.4 per cent) and hardware/building supplies (10.1 per cent).

Palmerston North (9.0 per cent) leads spending growth in the regions over the first three weeks of December, followed closely by Marlborough (8.7 per cent) and Canterbury (7.6 per cent).

Smaller regional centres such as Wanganui (2.3 per cent) and the West Coast (0.1 per cent) were still "having a tough time", he said.

New Zealand Retailers Association chief executive John Albertson said the results were encouraging.