Off the wire
• PSG beat Saint-Etienne to reach League Cup semis  • Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago to boost tourism cooperation  • China Focus: 2015 monetary policy, prudent with fine-tuning  • English FA Cup draw  • Japan's Cabinet approves 814 billion U.S. dollars budget for FY2015, defense spending hits record high  • English FA Cup results  • Luzon appointed Charlton coach  • Aston Villa sign Spanish midfielder Gil  • Australia's Victoria police defend use of phone, internet records  • Gold price opens lower in Hong Kong  
You are here: 　 Home

Falling fuel prices hold down New Zealand retail spending

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Falling oil prices helped hold down the amount New Zealanders spent on their debit and credit cards last month, the government statistics agency announced Wednesday.

Retail spending on electronic cards fell by 0.1 percent in December and followed a 0.2-percent fall in November, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"Although most retail industries were up in December, fuel spending fell significantly," acting business indicators manager Tehseen Islam said in a statement.

Spending on fuel fell by 23 million NZ dollars (17.74 million U. S. dollars), or 3.2 percent.

The largest rise in retail spending was in the consumable sector, which includes food and liquor, which saw sales up by 14 million NZ dollars (10.79 million U.S. dollars), or 0.8 percent.

Core retail spending, which excludes the vehicle-related industries, rose by 0.1 percent in December 2014.

Card-holders made 139 million transactions across all industries last month, spending a total 7.5 billion NZ dollars (5. 78 billion U.S. dollars). Endi