The month of October saw an increase in electronic card use, with a rise in spending across all retail industries, reported Statistics New Zealand.
It was the first time since May 2014 that there was an increase across all of the six retail industries, Neil Kelly, business indicators manager, said.
The increase of one per cent, seasonally adjusted, followed a September decrease of 0.1 per cent.
October saw the largest retail increases in consumables, which were up $15 million (0.9 per cent), durables, up $23 million (2.1 per cent), and fuel, up $16 million (2.2 per cent).
There was a rise of 1.1 per cent in core retail spending in October.
Across all industries there were 124 million transactions during the month of October, with an average value of $51.
Across all transactions the total amount spent was $6.4 million.