As winter rolled into spring in September, consumer spending continued to follow its usual seasonal rise, albeit at a lower level than in 2023 and interrupted by wet and cold weather across New Zealand.
Data released by Worldline NZ today shows consumer spending through Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality) in its payments network reached $2.84B in September 2024, which is down -3.4% from September 2023.
Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Proffit, says the decline for the month exaggerated the trend as the extra two days in 2024 were the typically weak trading days of Sunday and Monday.
“Overall, the trend appears similar to that of August – namely, a seasonal pick-up in spending is occurring but at a level that remains slightly below the spend of 2023,” says Proffit.
“There was, as usual, variation within the month but weather effects appear to be a major factor. For example, spending was down more on 2023 in Auckland/Northland in the third week of September, but weather data shows this was a relatively wet and cold week,” he says.
“Spending was not so far below 2023 levels in Auckland/Northland in the last week ending Friday, which was also a relatively cold and wet seven days last year.”[1]
Figure 1: All Cards Auckland and Northland underlying* spending through Worldline for the 11 weeks ending Friday during July-September 2023 and 2024 for core retail excluding hospitality merchants (*underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)
Meanwhile, in September 2024, no region experienced spending above that seen in September 2023. The largest decline was in Southland (-11.8%) and South Canterbury (-7.4%). Spending declined the least in Nelson (-0.8%), Canterbury (-1.1%) and Waikato (-1.5%).
| WORLDLINE All Cards underlying* spending for CORE RETAIL less HOSPITALITY merchants for September 2024 | |||
| Value | Underlying* | Underlying* | |
| Region | transactions $millions | Annual % change on 2023 | Annual % change on 2019 |
| Auckland/Northland | 1,046 | -4.0% | 10.2% |
| Waikato | 239 | -1.5% | 28.2% |
| BOP | 188 | -5.5% | 15.7% |
| Gisborne | 26 | -2.4% | 11.8% |
| Taranaki | 67 | -2.1% | 29.4% |
| Hawke’s Bay | 105 | -2.4% | 25.4% |
| Whanganui | 40 | -1.8% | 33.8% |
| Palmerston North | 87 | -4.1% | 23.5% |
| Wairarapa | 37 | -2.2% | 26.8% |
| Wellington | 250 | -3.5% | 10.5% |
| Nelson | 58 | -0.8% | 17.3% |
| Marlborough | 36 | -2.8% | 19.8% |
| West Coast | 20 | -2.0% | 26.3% |
| Canterbury | 362 | -1.1% | 26.0% |
| South Canterbury | 50 | -7.4% | 19.5% |
| Otago | 165 | -2.2% | 19.7% |
| Southland | 63 | -11.8% | 8.2% |
| New Zealand | 2,839 | -3.4% | 16.7% |
Figure 2: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline in September 2024 for core retail excluding hospitality merchants (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)
[1] Source: Weather in Auckland – Climate monitor on September 2024 (weatherandclimate.info).
