New Zealand October Retail Credit Card Spending Unchanged In October

(RTTNews) - The total value of retail credit card spending in Zealand was roughly flat on month in October, Statistics New Zealand said on Tuesday - coming in at NZ$4.9 billion.

That was shy of forecasts for an increase of 0.3 percent and down from 0.9 percent in September.

On a yearly basis, retail card spending was up NZ$260 million or 5.6 percent as spending was up in five of the six retail industries, with a fall in fuel spending.

"Retail spending was unchanged this month after rises in recent months," said business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly. "Of the retail industries, consumables had the largest rise, while the largest fall was in fuel."

Core retail credit card spending (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) was up 0.2 percent in October following a 1.2 percent rise in September.

Overall retail sales also were flat following the downwardly revised 0.6 percent gain in the previous month (originally 0.7 percent).

Trends for the total, retail, and core retail series have generally been rising since these series began in October 2002, the bureau said.