Credit and debit card spending increased in January 2022 compared with December 2021, especially on durables, fuel, and consumables, Stats NZ said today.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, total credit and debit card spending in January 2022 increased by $175 million (2.1 percent) compared with December 2021.
| Month | Actual | Seasonally adjusted |
| Jan-20 | 5891439000 | 5882136000 |
| Feb-20 | 5691140000 | 5901223000 |
| Mar-20 | 5651491000 | 5632676000 |
| Apr-20 | 2870608000 | 2963359000 |
| May-20 | 5188203000 | 5277478000 |
| Jun-20 | 5701230000 | 6084097000 |
| Jul-20 | 5968957000 | 6120718000 |
| Aug-20 | 5438997000 | 5702635000 |
| Sep-20 | 5734401000 | 6087961000 |
| Oct-20 | 6250722000 | 6083264000 |
| Nov-20 | 6256029000 | 6058263000 |
| Dec-20 | 7459526000 | 6024318000 |
| Jan-21 | 6005676000 | 6028141000 |
| Feb-21 | 5391444000 | 5845513000 |
| Mar-21 | 5937346000 | 5885545000 |
| Apr-21 | 5989711000 | 6157602000 |
| May-21 | 6129789000 | 6260014000 |
| Jun-21 | 5930914000 | 6310558000 |
| Jul-21 | 6252189000 | 6340726000 |
| Aug-21 | 4821625000 | 5106203000 |
| Sep-21 | 4878099000 | 5136123000 |
| Oct-21 | 5774430000 | 5673734000 |
| Nov-21 | 6436912000 | 6219252000 |
| Dec-21 | 7770984000 | 6238089000 |
| Jan-22 | 6346436000 | 6422238000 |
Card spending in all categories remained steady, with spending in the retail industries increasing by $184 million (3.0 percent) compared with the previous month.
“Retail card spending continued to increase in January and returned to similar levels seen before the lockdown in August,” business performance manager Ricky Ho said.
| Industry (ANZSIC06) | % |
| Consumables | 1.8 |
| Durables | 3.3 |
| Apparel | 0.0 |
| Motor vehicles excl. fuel | -0.4 |
| Fuel | 2.7 |
| Non-retail excl. services | 0.7 |
| Services | -0.3 |
Within the retail spending category, durables had the highest increase, up $54 million (3.3 percent), after seeing a decrease in the December month. This industry includes furniture, electrical goods, hardware, department stores, recreational goods, and pharmaceutical retailing.
Seasonally adjusted card spending on fuel had the next highest increase to $585 million, up $15 million (2.7 percent). The value of card spending on fuel this month is the highest since February 2020 ($591 million).
“The increase in spending on fuel comes at a time when the price of fuel has also increased,” Mr Ho said.
Spending on consumables, which include groceries and liquor, increased by $44 million (1.8 percent) from the previous month.
“Card spending on consumables may have risen partly due to people preparing for Omicron,” Mr Ho said.
In actual terms, total electronic card spending was $8.2 billion, up $339 million (4.3 percent) from January 2021.
Values are only available at the national level and are not adjusted for price changes.
