KEY POINTS:
Credit card spending slowed last month, according to the Reserve Bank, in the second indication today that consumer spending is cooling.
Total card billings - including overseas cards - rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 per cent in December to $2.8 billion from November, to be up 7.6 per cent for the year.
They had risen 1.2 per cent in November from the previous month, to be up 9.5 per cent on November 2006.
Earlier, Statistics New Zealand said the amount of money spent in electronic card transactions in December was unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis from November.
The seasonally adjusted value of the 95 million transactions last month was $4.6b, compared to 88 million transactions worth $4.3b in December 2006, Statistics NZ said.
Seasonally adjusted sales for vehicle-related industries had strong growth in each of the three months between September and November, and to a lesser extent in December. Increases in fuel prices appeared to be the main cause for the growth, Statistics NZ said.
The actual value of electronic card transactions last month was $5.6b, 7.5 per cent higher than the $5.2b recorded for December 2006.
For the year to the end of December, 966m electronic card transactions were made, with a seasonally adjusted value of $53.4b. That compared with 882m transactions with a value of $49b for the December 2006 year, Statistics NZ said.
The series is drawn from data covering all debit and credit card spending with New Zealand-based merchants.
The Reserve Bank left its Official Cash Rate steady at 8.25 per cent today, as expected, amid global market volatility and the threat of recession in the United States, the world's largest economy.
Inflation of 3.2 per cent has breached the Reserve Bank's target band and inflation pressures look set to continue, but the bank took into account world economic weakness, and the prospect of cooling consumer spending on the back of a softening housing market.
- NZPA
