Retail spending in New Zealand remained moderate in November, reporting an increase of 1.2 per cent during the month as claimed by Paymark, having a large number of electronic transaction retailers in the country.

The report said that the recent moderate surge seems to be indicating the history of previous year when sales surged just before Christmas.

Paymark Chief Executive Simon Tong added, "There's no doubt that 2009 has been one of the toughest years since we started processing EFTPOS transactions back in
1989."

Total number of transactions increased to 71.4 million during the period, he claimed.

He added that ways of consumer spending has been changing and people are moving away from supermarkets to more discretionary outlets. Some locations including Auckland/Northland witnessed decline in retail sales below national average while Gisborne showed some signs of relief with 5.1 per cent increase in spending.

Cities like Otago and Bay of Plenty also reported steep increase in spending but Wellington remained more subdued according to Paymark report.
(via TopNews New Zealand)