Consumers in Hawke's Bay appear to have been buying new winter wardrobes, with credit and debit card spending showing a big rise over winter.
New data from Paymark, which processes three-quarters of all electronic purchases, showed Hawke's Bay shoppers spent $136 million last month - a rise of 6.8 percent on the same month last year.
Paymark processed 3,100,000 transactions over the month - about 190,000 more than last July.
"Retail confidence in Hastings City is high and it is great to see that shown in the most recent statistics," Hastings City Business Association acting general manager Kelly Nolan said.
"This is a reflection of the overall economy but also the competitive nature of Hastings City retailers, which is highlighted in the continued high interest in the Hastings CBD from new business."
Napier City Business acting manager Steph Kennard said retailers in Napier's CBD had benefited from the July weather.
"This July was a colder one than previous years which has obviously driven more shoppers in to stores to make their winter purchases. While the weather has been cold, July was fairly dry and fine, perfect for the shopping experience.
"Some stores have reported one of the best July months they have had to date."
Christine McClusky, owner, Wool 'n' Things in Onekawa said it had certainly been a "reasonable" winter.
"People have been coming in for knitted baby jerseys. It's mostly baby stuff and hand-knitted stuff and it has been a reasonable winter for us. It's starting to slow a little now with the warmer weather coming in."
A Paymark spokesman said nationally, the largest regions of Auckland/ Northland, Canterbury and Wellington continued to show the slowest annual growth rates.
"Conversely, spending in the smaller regions is growing at a strong pace."
