NZ card spending dips in March

Shoppers and sale bags at Sylvia Park Shopping Mall. Photo / Janna Dixon

Retail spending on electronic cards fell in March, snapping five months of gains, as Easter trimmed two trading days and kiwis spent less on durable goods and clothing.

Retail spending on credit, debit and charge cards fell 0.5 per cent, seasonally adjusted, last month, according to Statistics New Zealand. Excluding fuel and vehicles, core retail spending fell 0.8 per cent in March.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday atypically fell in March this year, forcing most retailers to close their doors on those days. Easter fell before April for the first time since 2008.

Spending on durable goods declined 1.8 per cent and spending on clothing dropped 6.2 per cent. By contrast, spending on fuel and hospitality rose 1.4 per cent.

Actual transactions in core retail sales were up 2.8 per cent from the same month in 2012.

Total card spending rose 1.2 per cent. There were 112 million transactions last month, with an average value of $52, amounting to $5.8 million in unadjusted terms.

The figures come after Paymark, which processes 75 per cent of the nation's electronic transactions, this week reported that seasonally adjusted ex-fuel spending fell 1 per cent in March from February, the first month-on-month decline since September 2012.