New Zealand shoppers ease up on new spending with plastic cards

The rise in spending by New Zealand shoppers with debit and credit cards slowed to 0.3 percent last month, with purchases of food and drink leading the way, the government statistics agency announced Tuesday.

The rise in electronic card spending in the core retail industries, excluding motor vehicle-related industries, followed a "large 2.6-percent increase" in October, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"Consumables, such as food and liquor, accounted for most of the extra spending in November," industry and labor statistics manager Tehseen Islam said in a statement.

Consumables rose 22 million NZ dollars (18.22 million U.S. dollars), or 1.4 percent, the largest monthly rise for the industry since April 2012, while the other retail industries had relatively small rises and falls in November.

Total retail spending, including motor vehicle-related industries, was up by 0.6 percent in November.

The total amount spent in all 118 electronic card transactions was 6.2 billion NZ dollars.