{"id":858073,"date":"2026-08-17T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858073\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T05:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:00:15","slug":"retail-spending-jumps-in-july-following-flat-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858073\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail spending jumps in July following flat June"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retail spending has picked up during July, with increases across hospitality, clothing and durable goods providing a “welcome boost” for retailers after a quiet start to winter.<\/p>\n

According to Stats NZ’s latest electronic card transactions data, actual core retail spending was up 3.5% in July compared with the same month last year.<\/p>\n

That marked a significant increase from June<\/a>, where spending increased by just 0.4% from June 2025, and the total value of electronic card spending dropped by $116 million (1.2%) compared to May. <\/p>\n

Retail NZ’s advocacy, advice and communications manager Denise Garland said the July figures were encouraging for the struggling sector during a period of the year which was often slow. <\/p>\n

“Falling fuel prices meant households had a little bit extra in their pockets, and we can see that Kiwis took that opportunity to treat themselves,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Across July 2026, hospitality spending was up $46 million (3.2%), durables were up $41 million (2.5%), and consumables were up $28 million (1.0%). <\/p>\n

Apparel also increased by 2.5% year-on-year \u2014 the sector’s largest annual increase in two years and its biggest bump in spending since 2020. <\/p>\n

Fuel spending was down $22 million (4.3%), while motor vehicle spending, excluding fuel, was down $0.3 million (0.1%).<\/p>\n

Garland said an increase in hospitality spending was often a sign of improving consumer confidence. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe men\u2019s FIFA Football World Cup<\/a> looks to have encouraged people out into bars and restaurants right around the motu,” she added. <\/p>\n

“Events are hugely important to retail, because extra foot traffic in our town and city centres also means more people are out browsing in our high streets.’ <\/p>\n

However, Garland cautioned that it was too early to tell whether the July figures pointed to a broader improvement in consumer confidence or were the result of several factors lining up in retailers\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n

“July was unique in that not only was there a major international sporting event for the first half of the month, but there was also a public holiday \u2013 Matariki \u2013 and there were five Fridays, which are typically the weekday where we see the biggest spend in retail,” she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retail spending has picked up during July, with increases across hospitality, clothing and durable goods providing a “welcome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-858073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}