Transactions using electronic cards rose in June from the previous month, with rises across all industry groups apart from fuel, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) figures show.Total electronic card transactions were up a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent from Ma
Transactions using electronic cards rose in June from the previous month, with rises across all industry groups apart from fuel, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) figures show.
Total electronic card transactions were up a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent from May, with a 1.5 percent rise in non-retail industries, which included services such as travel and health, and wholesaling.
The increase in total transactions followed a rise of 0.3 percent in May and a fall of 1 percent in April.
With a 3.1 percent fall in fuel sales, retail industry transactions were up just 0.4 percent, the same rise as in May.
In core retail, which excluded vehicle-related industries, transactions were up 0.6 percent, following a 1.1 percent increase in May, SNZ said.
The core retail gain was led by a 0.7 percent rise in the consumables group, which included food, liquor and chemist retailing.
The actual -- not seasonally adjusted -- value of transactions in the core retail series was up 4 percent from a year earlier.
Annually, credit card use, as a proportion of the total transaction value, had been falling since September 2008, with a corresponding rise in debit card use, SNZ said.
Credit cards accounted for 44 percent of transactions in the year to June 2010, the lowest proportion since the series began.
ASB economist Christina Leung said the fall in fuel retailing reflected a fall in petrol prices, which ASB estimated to have been around 3 percent.
Once again, spending on apparel and vehicles rebounded modestly on a seasonally adjusted basis," she said.
Spending in the hospitality sector picked up, she said.
"Some of this is likely to reflect the purchase of Rugby World Cup tickets, as around 90 percent of the 750,000 tickets released for sale were charged on credit cards in June."
