New Zealand’s consumer spending remained weak in October despite the general election in the middle of the month, Worldline NZ data showed.

Payments processed through all core retail merchants excluding hospitality in Worldline NZ’s network increased by only 0.5 per cent year over year to $3.10 billion.

“The annual growth rate for the whole month was lower than shown for the four weeks within the month as the ‘extra’ days in October this year of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are the three slowest days of the week for spending, which creates a downward bias in any year-on-year comparison,” said Bruce Proffit, chief sales officer at Worldline NZ.

Despite the weak consumer spending across the majority of merchants, Proffit noted that spending continues to increase in supermarkets and fast food chains.

Whanganui posted the highest annual consumer spending growth of 7.6 per cent, followed by West Coast and South Canterbury at 4.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively.

Consumer spending declined 1.0 per cent in Southland and 0.5 per cent in Auckland/Northland.