KEY POINTS:
The consumer's love affair with the plastic continues unabated, with both the volume and value of electronic card transactions last month 10 per cent higher than in January last year.
Statistics New Zealand released for the first time yesterday data covering all debt and credit card spending with New Zealand merchants. It includes not only eftpos transactions but credit card transactions by mail order, phone and the internet, direct debits from credit card accounts and some cash withdrawals.
There were 76 million transactions in January, with a value of $4.4 billion, up from 69 million worth $4 billion in January last year. Over the whole of 2006 the average value of card transactions per person was $12,100, 8.6 per cent higher than in 2005.
Such transactions represent about 57 per cent of retail spending.
"Over the past few years the uptake of electronic transaction technology among retailers and increasing card usage by consumers have led to an increasing share of retail sales by electronic card transactions," Statistics NZ said.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, retail electronic transactions were 0.5 per cent higher in January than in December. Core retail transactions, which exclude the automotive sector, were 0.7 per cent higher.
Goldman Sachs JBWere economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the data showed continuing resilience in retail spending since a trough last July, and perhaps signs of recovery.
"We expect the recent run of data to have cemented a hike [in the official cash rate] on March 8."
The money market also regards a hike by the Reserve Bank as close to a done deal, with Credit Suisse's swaps-base indicator pricing in an 85 per cent chance of a 25-basis point rise to 7.5 per cent.
