KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders swiped their electronic cards no less than 80 million times at retailers last month.
The value of the combined electronic card transactions for May totalled $4.6 billion, Statistics New Zealand said today.
When adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, this represents a 1.1 percent increase in total card spending compared with the previous month.
The overall trend was 8.4 percent higher in May this year than in May 2006.
The annual increase in the Electonic Card Transaction series trend was almost 15 percent in 2004 but has generally ranged between 9 and 11 percent since then.
As well as reflecting changes in consumer spending and prices, the trend also reflects changing use of payment technologies by merchants and customers.
In the retail industries, seasonally adjusted card transactions rose 0.1 percent in May 2007 compared with April 2007. The core retail Electronic Card Transaction series decreased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, over the same period.
The Electronic Card Transaction series measures the number and value of debit, credit and charge card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants.
