Cyclone Gabrielle had ‘major influence’ on spending last month, Worldline New Zealand data shows

Worldline data shows card spending was up 7.7 per cent in February on last year. Photo / NZME

Cyclone Gabrielle had a “major influence” on spending last month, according to Worldline New Zealand data.

Worldline, which runs NZ’s largest eftpos network, found spending in February was up 7.7 per cent on last February and up 17.1 per cent before Covid in February 2019.

Worldline data showed consumer spending in February 2023 in retail was $2.8 billion.

“The most noticeable impact on consumer spending in February was the effect of Cyclone Gabrielle around the middle of the month,” chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said.

Data showed spending dropped sharply between Monday February 13 and Tuesday the 14th in Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Taranaki.

For the same regions, spending increased sharply before the cyclone, which offset the decrease.

Gisborne was the only region with a drop in overall spending on last year with a 4 per cent drop, coming in at $23 million in retail card spending through Worldline in February.

Spending in hospitality rose 29.2 per cent on last year at $923 million last month. This is a 3.7 per cent increase from 2019.

Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay were the only regions with a drop in hospitality spending from last year, likely because of the cyclone’s effects.

Hospitality spending was down 17 per cent in Gisborne and down 3 per cent in Hawke’s Bay.

Hospitality spending was up the most in the West Coast, Otago and Southland, where spending rose 80 per cent, 62 per cent and 61 per cent on last February.

Spending in the West Coast was up 20.6 per cent on last year while Auckland/Northland and Wellington remained below the national average growth rate on both measures, Proffit said.

“In the Gisborne region, consumer spending is weakest, down 3.8 per cent since last year and up only 8.2 per cent since 2019,” he said.

Data also showed spending growth was stronger in the South Island relative to 2022 and to 2019.

Proffit said the growth was partly due to the effects of severe weather in February 2023 as well as higher tourist numbers.

“At this time last year, New Zealand was still in high-alert mode around Covid, meaning consumer spending was significantly curtailed, so it is not surprising to see a sharp rise on last year,” he said.

Worldline’s data accounts for roughly 70 per cent of total transaction volume across the country.

Worldline highlights the data is for total underlying spend, which excludes large clients moving to or from the Worldline payment system.