Regions Spending More Than Main Centres Pre-Christmas
During the first week of December 2007 New Zealanders conducted almost 16 million electronic transactions in stores,
worth around $873 million, according to data from Paymark.
Transaction volume was up an average of 7.8 percent across the country compared with the same period in 2006. This time
last year the annual volume growth rate was 10.3 percent. While transaction volume was up 7.8 percent over the same week
last year, the value of these transactions increased by 7.3 percent.
New Zealanders made 1,245,383 million more transactions and spent $63 million more this year than in the first week of
December 2006.
Interestingly though, the average year-on-year increase throughout Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury was up only 6.7
percent over the week, while the annual volume growth rate for the rest of the country sat at 9.6 percent.
Regions with the fastest increase in spending since the same week last year were Taranaki & Taupo and Southland. These two regions also saw the annual growth rate accelerate the most since winter. Other regions
to experience accelerating annual growth rates include Palmerston North, South Canterbury, West Coast, Otago and
Waikato.
Wellington and Gisborne had the lowest year-on-year increases for the week, at just 5 percent each, and deceleration was
greatest in Wellington, Nelson, Auckland and Canterbury.
Simon Tong, Chief Executive Officer, Paymark, says; “It’s interesting to see the regions doing well while major
centres are falling behind in spending so far this December.
“The next couple of weeks will be the busiest on the calendar for retailers as the festive season hits full swing, and
we will watch with interest to see how the main centres track against the regions. We expect to see huge spikes in
supermarket, liquor and retail spending as people stock up on last minute items for Christmas day.â€
The Paymark system processes three quarters of all electronic transactions in store and will be tracking spending
throughout December. Nearly 90% of Kiwis have a debit card and that puts us ahead of any other country in the world in
terms of EFTPOS use.
Paymark is geared up to ensure optimum eftpos switch availability and customer satisfaction leading up to, during, and
after the crucial Christmas sales period. At its peak, the system will be processing over 100 transactions per second
ENDS