Electronic Card Transactions 13 August

The electronic card transactions (ECT) series cover debit, credit, and charge card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants. The series can be used to indicate changes in consumer spending and economic activity.

Key facts

All figures are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.

Values are at the national level and are not adjusted for price changes.

July 2025 month

Changes in the value of electronic card transactions for the July 2025 month (compared with June 2025) were:

  • spending in the retail industries increased 0.2 percent ($13 million)
  • spending in the core retail industries was relatively flat (up $1.5 million).
"Month""Actual""Seasonally adjusted""Trend"
"Jul-22""6500910000""6703941000""6715221000"
"Aug-22""6389088000""6737127000""6772255000"
"Sep-22""6555598000""6855079000""6828505000"
"Oct-22""7053533000""7006170000""6873597000"
"Nov-22""7263727000""6905557000""6891255000"
"Dec-22""8548389000""6883601000""6898377000"
"Jan-23""6871457000""6896797000""6923664000"
"Feb-23""6415293000""6945884000""6965542000"
"Mar-23""7194542000""7055657000""7004821000"
"Apr-23""6843706000""7055261000""7026529000"
"May-23""6731522000""6965143000""7033889000"
"Jun-23""6685904000""7060804000""7041004000"
"Jul-23""6765373000""7047958000""7048795000"
"Aug-23""6754616000""7083299000""7057575000"
"Sep-23""6747040000""7041669000""7052563000"
"Oct-23""6995276000""7006892000""7040392000"
"Nov-23""7499219000""7084085000""7033254000"
"Dec-23""8608488000""6979941000""7026430000"
"Jan-24""7070281000""7047548000""7017408000"
"Feb-24""6724446000""6987332000""7001045000"
"Mar-24""7129902000""6975423000""6972793000"
"Apr-24""6685214000""6945244000""6930050000"
"May-24""6717430000""6888005000""6877513000"
"Jun-24""6402501000""6803924000""6834093000"
"Jul-24""6474046000""6807761000""6810881000"
"Aug-24""6589334000""6826383000""6815037000"
"Sep-24""6406495000""6822152000""6837330000"
"Oct-24""6943425000""6885628000""6865364000"
"Nov-24""7354746000""6883364000""6896657000"
"Dec-24""8610063000""7083785000""6923172000"
"Jan-25""7077398000""6944936000""6931096000"
"Feb-25""6455973000""6951652000""6914231000"
"Mar-25""6960175000""6851494000""6883756000"
"Apr-25""6614880000""6849343000""6857699000"
"May-25""6710150000""6840917000""6851611000"
"Jun-25""6382551000""6875623000""6862540000"
"Jul-25""6581483000""6888768000""6879163000"

By retail spending category, movements were:

  • consumables, up $14 million (0.5 percent)
  • motor vehicles (excluding fuel), up $10 million (5.2 percent)
  • hospitality, up $7.2 million (0.5 percent)
  • fuel, down $0.6 million (0.1 percent)
  • apparel, down $6.4 million (1.9 percent)
  • durables, down $13 million (0.8 percent).
"Industry (ANZSIC06)""Percentage change"
"Consumables"" 0.5"
"Durables""-0.8"
"Hospitality"" 0.5"
"Apparel""-1.9"
"Motor vehicles excl. fuel"" 5.2"
"Fuel""-0.1"
"Non-retail excl. services"" 1.6"
"Services"" 0.3"

Note, the seasonally adjusted series are adjusted independently of each other, therefore, the sum of the component categories may differ to the total.

The non-retail (excluding services) category increased by $35 million (1.6 percent) from June 2025. This category includes medical and other health care, travel and tour arrangement, postal and courier delivery, and other non-retail industries.

The services category was up $1.3 million (0.3 percent). This category includes repair and maintenance, and personal care, funeral, and other personal services.

The total value of electronic card spending, including the two non-retail categories (services and other non-retail), increased from June 2025, up $59 million (0.6 percent).

In actual terms, cardholders made 173 million transactions across all industries in July 2025, with an average value of $54 per transaction. The total amount spent using electronic cards was $9.3 billion.

Updates to the data

The July 2025 release includes minor classification corrections from January 2017 to May 2025. The series impacted are core retail, total retail, and total electronic card transactions. These updates have a minimal impact on the monthly percentage movements.

More data

Use Infoshare to access the electronic card transactions time series:

Subject category: Economic indicators
Group: Electronic card transactions (ANZSIC06) - ECT

Definitions and metadata

Electronic card transactions data collection methodology - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce electronic card transaction statistics.

Electronic card transactions concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Technical enquiries

Declan Tobin
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 1178-0258

Next release

Electronic card transactions: August 2025 will be released on 12 September 2025.

/Stats NZ Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.