Kiwis splash out $225.5 million in one day

Friday was the busiest day this year, when Kiwis splashed out $225.5 million. Photo / iStock

Around the country tills rang during what was the busiest weekend of spending in the year so far.

Kiwis swiped away $604.1 million through a record 11.8 million transactions on the Paymark network from Friday December 18 through to Sunday December 20, a 3.8 per cent increase on the same weekend last year.

Paymark chief executive, Mark Rushworth, said spending had increased throughout this month.

"The growth rate was not as strong over the weekend but we did see new highs for the year in spite of having one more trading day between the weekend and Christmas Day this year," he said.

Friday was the busiest day this year, when Kiwis splashed out $225.5 million.

Mr Rushmore said it was still below the $263.5 million spending peak on Christmas Eve last year but volume was rising steadily as the big day approached.

"Typically we see between 50 and 60 transactions a second but already we're seeing 115 to 120 transactions per second, so we are expecting a very big day on Thursday."

In the seven days ending December 21, spending jumped 8.2 per cent on last year.

Growth was strongest in Bay of Plenty and Auckland/Northland.