Fuel lifts card spending in July

Motorists spent more on fuel with their debit and credit cards in July 2013, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Spending on fuel (up $39 million, or 5.3 percent) boosted the value of total retail transactions, which increased 0.4 percent in July 2013, after adjusting for seasonal effects.

"Fuel had the largest rise in card spending in July," industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said. "This was the third month in a row where we've seen a large monthly rise in the fuel industry."

The other large industry movements were:

• durables, down $15 million (1.4 percent)
• apparel, down $10 million (3.3 percent).

The remaining industries had rises or falls of around $2 million or less.

Core retail spending (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) decreased 0.7 percent. Total card spending increased 0.2 percent.

"All of the trends for the total series have generally been increasing since October 2002. The trends for total spending and total retail spending are increasing at a faster rate than the trend for core retail spending, which has eased slightly since early 2013," Mr Cardno said.

In unadjusted terms, there were 111 million transactions across all industries in July, with an average value of $52. The total amount spent across all transactions was $5.8 billion.