Kiwis tighten purse strings in June

New Zealanders tightened the purse strings last month, becoming increasingly unwilling to buy larger durable items such as appliances and furniture, new data suggests.

The electronic card transaction figures for June, released by Statistics New Zealand today, are a blow to hopes that green shoots of recovery are gaining strength in the economy.

After adjusting for seasonal effects, core retail electronic card transactions - which exclude vehicle-related industries - fell 1.2 per cent in June compared with May.

Durables, which includes furniture, hardware and appliances, were the main contributor to the June decrease, said Statistics NZ.

Smaller falls were recorded in all other core retail industries in June, except for consumables, which include food, liquor, and chemist retailing, which was unchanged compared with May.

The fall in core retailing in June follows rises in the previous three months, including a 1.1 per cent rise in May.

The actual value of core retail transactions in June was up 3.6 per cent from a year earlier.

In the retail and total electronic card sales, seasonally adjusted transactions fell 1 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.

Those decreases were dominated by the decline in core retail, and happened despite small rises in the non-retail and vehicle-related industries, said Statistics NZ.

The 1 per cent fall in the retail series followed four months of rises, while the 0.4 per cent fall in the total series followed rises of 0.7 per cent in May and 0.8 per cent in April.

- NZPA