Retail spending for the first week of 2015, week ending January 4, 2015 was up 4.1 per cent over the same week last year, with transaction volumes also strong, up 3.64 per cent, according to BNZ MarketView’s weekly card and debit spending report.

The figures represent a positive start to 2015 for retailers after a somewhat flat December (spending was up 1.4 per cent for the last four weeks, when compared to the same period last year).

Liquor retailers were a beneficiary, as spending rose 8.3 per cent compared to the same week last year.

Over the last four weeks, spending at liquor retailers grew 3.6 per cent.

There were also significant gains in the non-food store type groupings. Hardware/homewares retailers increased  15.1 per cent; department stores, 14.5 per cent; and appliances retailers, 11.3 per cent.

 All experienced large increases over the same week last year, especially appliances, with this group was down 2.7 per cent over the past 52 weeks, compared to the previous 52 weeks.