Motor-vehicle industry drives retail spending

Motor-vehicle industry drives retail spending

16 February 2015

Retail spending continued to rise in the December 2014 quarter, driven by the motor-vehicle industry, Statistics New Zealand said today.

After adjusting for seasonal effects, the volume of total retail trade sales rose 1.7 percent in the December 2014 quarter, after rising 1.6 percent in the September quarter. The last time the sales volume rose more than 1.7 percent was in the June 2012 quarter, when sales rose 1.9 percent.

“The motor-vehicle industry drove this quarter's increase, having the largest rises in both the sales volume and value, "acting business indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

Twelve of the 15 retail industries had higher sales volumes. The largest industry movements were:

• motor-vehicle and parts retailing, up 3.4 percent

• food and beverage services, up 3.0 percent

• supermarket and grocery stores, down 1.2 percent.

The volume of sales in core retail (which excludes the vehicle-related industries) rose 1.5 percent.

When the effect of price changes is included, the total value of retail sales rose 1.6 percent ($302 million), with sales rising in 10 of the 15 retail industries. This is also the largest total value increase since the June 2012 quarter, when sales rose 1.8 percent ($306 million).

For core retail (which excludes the vehicle-related industries), the sales value rose 1.6 percent ($228 million).

Looking at the longer-term picture, the trends for both total retail sales volumes, and values, have generally been rising since mid-2009.

In actual terms, the value of total retail sales was $20.9 billion in the December 2014 quarter, up 4.7 percent compared with the December 2013 quarter. This is the first time the total sales value was over the $20 billion level.

For more information about these statistics:

• Visit Retail Trade Survey: December 2014 quarter

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