Consumer spending was down slightly for the week ending November 2 compared with the same week last year, reported BNZ MarketView.
Spending on Labour Day yielded only a 0.3 per cent increase, compared with last year’s Labour Day, with the number of transactions falling 0.4 per cent.
Total spending on Labour weekend was down two per cent compared with the 2013 Labour weekend.
For the week, the change in spending on BNZ credit and debit cards was down 0.22 per cent compared with the same week last year, with transaction volumes up 0.42 per cent.
The leading category this week was hardware and homewares retailers, where spending was up 7.2 per cent, compared with the same week last year.
In the past 52 weeks there has been a rise of 1.5 per cent in retail spending, and 3 per cent in transaction volumes.
BNZ Marketview concluded that the slow growth of retail may be due to how consumer’s available funds are changing.
The growth in retail spend of 1.5 per cent almost mirrors the rise in average salary and wages, which may mean that consumers are willing to spend more on retail, but are not blowing their budgets.
