Electronic Card Transactions 21 January

The electronic card transactions (ECT) series cover debit, credit, and charge card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants. The series can be used to indicate changes in consumer spending and economic activity.

Key facts

All figures are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.

Values are at the national level and are not adjusted for price changes.

December 2024 month

Changes in the value of electronic card transactions for the December 2024 month (compared with November 2024) were:

• spending in the retail industries increased 2.0 percent ($130 million)
• spending in the core retail industries increased 1.8 percent ($103 million).

By retail spending category, movements were:

• durables, up $57 million (3.7 percent)
• consumables, up $36 million (1.4 percent)
• fuel, up $19 million (3.8 percent)
• hospitality, up $12 million (1.0 percent)
• apparel, up $10 million (3.1 percent)
• motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down $2.4 million (1.3 percent).

Note, the seasonally adjusted series are adjusted independently of each other, therefore, the sum of the component categories may differ to the total.

The non-retail (excluding services) category increased by $22 million (1.0 percent) from November 2024. This category includes medical and other health care, travel and tour arrangement, postal and courier delivery, and other non-retail industries.

The services category was up $7.4 million (2.0 percent). This category includes repair and maintenance, and personal care, funeral, and other personal services.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail), increased from November 2024, up $139 million (1.5 percent).

In actual terms, cardholders made 183 million transactions across all industries in December 2024, with an average value of $58 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $11 billion.

December 2024 quarter

Changes in the seasonally adjusted value of retail electronic card transactions for the December 2024 quarter (compared with the September 2024 quarter) were:

• spending in the retail industries increased $203 million (1.1 percent)
• spending in the core retail industries increased $231 million (1.3 percent).

By spending category, the movements were:

• hospitality, up $129 million (3.6 percent)
• durables, up $101 million (2.2 percent)
• consumables, up $40 million (0.5 percent)
• apparel, up $20 million (2.1 percent)
• motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down $7.7 million (1.4 percent)
• fuel, down $23 million (1.5 percent).

The non-retail (excluding services) category was down $23 million (0.3 percent) and the services category was up $20 million (1.8 percent).

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail) increased by $193 million (0.7 percent) compared with the September 2024 quarter.

Data quality

Since the June 2024 month there has been a change in the industry classifications for some of the ECT data provided to Stats NZ. As more data becomes available in coming months, we will advise on how we integrate industry classification changes into our time series. In the interim, we have imputed some data to ensure consistency of industry-level time series.

More data

Use Infoshare to access the electronic card transactions time series:

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: Electronic card transactions (ANZSIC06) - ECT

Definitions and metadata

Electronic card transactions data collection methodology - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce electronic card transaction statistics.

Electronic card transactions concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Technical enquiries

Valentine Modera
04 931 4600
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0258

Next release

Electronic card transactions: January 2025 will be released on 13 February 2025.