Stats NZ

Electronic card transactions: July 2022

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.

July month

Changes in the value of electronic card transactions for the July 2022 month (compared with June 2022) were:

  • spending in the retail industries fell 0.2 percent ($11 million)
  • spending in the core retail industries rose 0.2 percent ($8 million).
Created with Highcharts 5.0.14$Retail card spending ($), monthly, July 2020–July 2022ActualSeasonally adjustedJul-20Aug-20Sep-20Oct-20Nov-20Dec-20Jan-21Feb-21Mar-21Apr-21May-21Jun-21Jul-21Aug-21Sep-21Oct-21Nov-21Dec-21Jan-22Feb-22Mar-22Apr-22May-22Jun-22Jul-224B5B6B7B8BStats NZ

Retail card spending ($), monthly, July 2020–July 2022

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14$Retail card spending ($), monthly, July 2020–July 2022ActualSeasonally adjustedJul-20Aug-20Sep-20Oct-20Nov-20Dec-20Jan-21Feb-21Mar-21Apr-21May-21Jun-21Jul-21Aug-21Sep-21Oct-21Nov-21Dec-21Jan-22Feb-22Mar-22Apr-22May-22Jun-22Jul-224B5B6B7B8BStats NZ
MonthActualSeasonally adjusted
Jul-205,968,957,0006,130,261,000
Aug-205,438,997,0005,706,272,000
Sep-205,734,401,0006,092,844,000
Oct-206,250,722,0006,083,592,000
Nov-206,256,029,0006,055,694,000
Dec-207,459,526,0006,017,788,000
Jan-216,005,676,0006,005,934,000
Feb-215,391,444,0005,847,282,000
Mar-215,937,346,0005,886,965,000
Apr-215,989,711,0006,162,505,000
May-216,129,789,0006,266,113,000
Jun-215,930,914,0006,314,353,000
Jul-216,252,189,0006,350,818,000
Aug-214,821,625,0005,110,362,000
Sep-214,878,099,0005,141,345,000
Oct-215,774,430,0005,673,513,000
Nov-216,436,912,0006,216,456,000
Dec-217,770,984,0006,225,875,000
Jan-226,346,436,0006,393,263,000
Feb-225,449,256,0005,917,585,000
Mar-225,910,254,0005,843,141,000
Apr-226,113,927,0006,265,901,000
May-226,171,502,0006,374,335,000
Jun-226,042,842,0006,375,626,000
Jul-226,221,006,0006,364,317,000

By spending category, the movements were:

  • consumables, up $52 million (2.2 percent)
  • apparel, up $1 million (0.4 percent)
  • motor vehicles (excluding fuel), down $0.8 million (0.4 percent)
  • durables, down $9 million (0.6 percent)
  • fuel, down $39 million (6.1 percent).
Created with Highcharts 5.0.14Industry (ANZSIC06)$ANZSIC06 – Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006Change in seasonally adjusted card transaction values by industry ($), June 2022–July 2022ConsumablesDurablesApparelMotor vehicles excl. fuelFuelNon-retail excl. servicesServices-40M-35M-30M-25M-20M-15M-10M-5M05M10M15M20M25M30M35M40M45M50M55MStats NZ

Change in seasonally adjusted card transaction values by industry ($), June 2022–July 2022

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14$Change in seasonally adjusted card transaction values by industry ($), June 2022–July 2022$ConsumablesDurablesApparelMotor vehicles excl. fuelFuelNon-retail excl. servicesServices-40M-35M-30M-25M-20M-15M-10M-5M05M10M15M20M25M30M35M40M45M50M55MStats NZ
Industry (ANZSIC06)$
Consumables52,037,000
Durables-9,370,000
Apparel1,282,000
Motor vehicles excl. fuel-838,000
Fuel-38,912,000
Non-retail excl. services-9,406,000
Services6,308,000

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

The non-retail (excluding services) category decreased by $9 million (0.5 percent) from June 2022. 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 $6 million (1.9 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), decreased slightly from June 2022, down $20 million (0.2 percent).

Due to the effect of COVID-19 on tourism, we are unable to release seasonally adjusted figures for the hospitality industry. As such, we are focusing on the actual hospitality values for the July 2022 publication. We will continue to monitor this approach as more data becomes available.

Spending in the hospitality industry fell $44 million (3.6 percent) between July 2021 and July 2022.

In actual terms, cardholders made 153 million transactions across all industries in July 2022, with an average value of $55 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $8.5 billion.

Seasonal adjustment: quality note

COVID-19 has introduced unusual patterns to the monthly and quarterly electronic card transaction series. While the series continue to show irregular spending patterns, we are releasing seasonally adjusted data for July 2022, with the following caveats.

  • We are confident in the seasonal adjustment of the core retail total, total retail, and total card-spending series.
  • We are also confident in the seasonally adjusted figures for the consumables and durables industries for the July 2021–July 2022 months.
  • The March 2020–November 2020 seasonally adjusted monthly data is of lower quality due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the usual seasonal spending patterns. Please use caution when making inferences from this data.
  • The hospitality industry is yet to see a clear seasonal pattern return to it, and so we have decided not to publish either the monthly or quarterly series until we have confidence in the quality of these series. We will continue to monitor this on an ongoing basis.
  • All seasonally adjusted series will continue to be revised each month and will continue to be calculated each month. Due to the effects of COVID-19 on spending, they may change more than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

See Impact of COVID-19 on seasonally adjusted and trend series for more information.

Trend series unavailable due to COVID-19

It is not possible to estimate current trend levels to Stats NZ’s usual quality standard until we know the full effect of COVID-19 on the time series. Once the series stabilises, we will estimate the COVID-19 effect on trend. The timeframe for this will vary for different series, depending on how they have been affected by COVID-19.

More data

Use Infoshare to access the electronic card transactions time series:

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

ISSN 1178-0258

Next release

Electronic card transactions: August 2022 will be released on 9 September 2022.

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