KEY POINTS:
Retailers say by the time April rolls around they will be hanging out for the scheduled tax cuts.
Latest Statistics New Zealand figures on electronic card transactions show the retail scene remains flat. The value of transactions in December was down 0.7 per cent, compared with November.
This follows a 2.9 per cent drop in November, the largest fall since the survey began in 2002, and continues a downward trend after several years of growth.
If fuel is taken out, the value of core retail electronic card transactions rose 0.2 per cent in December. Statistics New Zealand said this was because of a substantial rise in sales of durable products, such as televisions and whiteware.
However the figures indicate that money saved on fuel is not necessarily being spent elsewhere. John Albertson, chief executive of the New Zealand Retailers Association, said Kiwis had continued to shop - there were 99 million electronic card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants in December, compared with 95 million in the same period the previous year.
But the average transaction value was $57, down from $59 in December 2007.
"It's not the greatest Christmas we've had but given the circumstances in the international market it could have been an awful lot worse."
He said the key in coming months was going to be attitude, and the April tax cuts would be "very, very timely".
"We've got through Christmas, we will get through the summer sales, the back-to-school period, and by April we're going to need a shot in the arm I suspect."
Andrew Dutkiewicz, chief executive of appliance retailer Noel Leeming said his group's sales in December had been slightly up on the previous December. Consumers had made purchases before the weakening kiwi dollar forced prices up, he said.
"People have been buying up televisions, whiteware - even computers have tracked fairly well over that period."
While there had been good deals available over the holidays, appliance retailing was a highly competitive market year-round and Noel Leeming hadn't done anything out of the ordinary.
Dutkiewicz said tax cuts didn't directly translate into people going out and buying televisions, but they affected confidence.
Statistics New Zealand's electronic card transactions survey measures payments made by debit, credit and charge cards, but does not include cash, cheque, hire purchase or internet banking payments. Its retail trade survey includes cash, cheque and hire purchase transactions.
