Transactions surge ahead of Christmas 

With Christmas just around the corner, the shopping rush has begun, according to the latest figures from Paymark.

The electronics payment provider says national transactions were up 6.7% last week, with over 19 million transactions recorded. The peak hour was between 12pm and 1pm on Saturday, with 318,831 transactions taking place.

During the week, $1.74 billion was spent across the network.

Paymark says transactional value lifted 3.9% compared with 0.5% in October and November.

Paymark CEO Simon Tong expects traditional purchasing patterns to continue right up until Christmas.

"Kiwis have really started to pick up the pace with 11 days to go. If we look at spending patterns and trends from the last 20 years, we can expect to see more of the same as the year comes to a close," says Simon.

Paymark processes over 75% of all electronic transactions in New Zealand and has more than 100,000 terminals connected to the network.

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