{"id":621938,"date":"2026-10-06T04:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T04:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621938\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T04:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T04:42:11","slug":"retail-figures-spending-falls-in-september-as-consumers-cope-with-rising-petrol-prices-interest-rates-bad-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621938\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail figures: Spending falls in September as consumers cope with rising petrol prices, interest rates, bad weather"},"content":{"rendered":"\u201cPetrol prices jumped sharply in mid-September. Spending through Paymark at fuel outlets was running 35% ahead of year ago levels in the week ending 30 September, largely due to higher prices but also due to more transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said interest rates had also risen over the last three months as the Official Cash Rate (OCR) rose 50 basis points (bps) from 2.25% to 2.75%.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd thirdly, in the last weekend of the month, the weather turned cold, wet and windy across much of the country, which tends to keep shoppers at home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Proffit said the net effect on consumers can be clearly seen by comparing the year-on-year spending at non-food retailers in the first week of July with the last week of September.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first seven days of July, non-food spending went from being +0.9% above year ago levels to being -7.1% below year ago levels in the final seven days of September,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Regionally, annual growth rates for core retail spending in September were highest in Gisborne (+3.1%) and Hawke\u2019s Bay (+2.8%).<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, spending dropped annually in Marlborough by 9.7% and by 3.3% on the West Coast.<\/p>\n
In Auckland, spending at core retail merchants in September fell 1.7% compared with the previous year, following a 2.2% drop in August.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the ANZ-Roy Morgan New Zealand Consumer Confidence index dropped 0.4 points to 97.6 in September.<\/p>\n
However, the index remains 17 points above its April low.<\/p>\n
ANZ economists said the New Zealand economy is a mixed bag at present.<\/p>\n
\u201cKey goods exports are benefiting from robust prices and the low NZ dollar, which is also supporting the tourism sector just as seasonal demand is set to pick up. <\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, the housing market is gradually losing steam, monetary stimulus is being withdrawn, the unemployment rate remains elevated, cost-of-living pressures continue to bite, and consumers are feeling cautious.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said renewed pressure on fuel prices was adding to that caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the conditions are in place for the recovery to continue. However, for many households it is unlikely to feel like much of a recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPetrol prices jumped sharply in mid-September. Spending through Paymark at fuel outlets was running 35% ahead of year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6030,806,15435,138,3311,23852,73222,44933,219,15248,13989,30271,13484,78,12469,111,139,69,306111,22126,12937,7676,644,801,8037,1305,8262,306112,4998,102],"class_list":["post-621938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-again","tag-as","tag-bad","tag-business","tag-consumer","tag-consumers","tag-cope","tag-dealt","tag-economy","tag-falls","tag-fell","tag-figures","tag-higher","tag-in","tag-interest","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paymark","tag-petrol","tag-prices","tag-rates","tag-retail","tag-rising","tag-september","tag-show","tag-spending","tag-triplewhammy","tag-weather","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}