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Man using credit card - Source: ONE News -
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Retail spending using electronic cards was up a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in December, according to Statistics New Zealand.
Vehicle fuel was the main factor in the rise, as it had been in rises in the series since last July.
Core retail sales, which exclude the vehicle-related industries, rose 0.4% from November, driven by consumables such as food, liquor and chemist retailing.
The actual value of transactions in core retail was $4.2 billion, up 3.6% from December 2008.
When non-retail industries were included, the total value of electronic card transactions was up by just a seasonally adjusted 0.3%.
The non-retail industries, which include services such as travel and health, and wholesaling, were down 1.4% in December.
Trends for the value of transactions in the total, retail, and core retail series have all been increasing since January 2009.
Latest figures indicate that the growth rate for the retail series has picked up since last August.
For the core retail series, the trend had been comparatively flat in recent months, up 1% since June.
Credit card use accounted for 44.6% of total transactions in the December quarter, an increase on the two previous quarters.
That followed a general decline since the March 2008 quarter when the proportion was 47.7%.
