Housing market’s impact on spending patterns

Housing market’s impact on spending patterns

The volatile housing market is feeding through into higher spending at shops and, in spite of some weakness in spending during May, this underlying positive pressure remains.

The value of spending through the Paymark network was 4.7% higher in May relative to May last year when measured on a underlying basis that removes the distortions created by major additions or exits from the Paymark merchant list. This rate of annual growth is below that experienced so far this year, which has ranged between 6.0% and 11.0%.

Spending growth was slower in May but a closer looks at the causes shows that fundamentally the strong spending momentum of earlier months is still intact. Behind the weaker spending was the weather experienced in the last week of May and the fall of Queen’s Birthday this year.

New Zealand spending growth through Paymark was running high for the first three weeks of the month but then decelerated sharply in the last week. Spending actually declined in many places on the last weekend. Poor weather appears the key factor while the shift in Queen’s Birthday to one week later this year has distorted regional weekend figures.

FORE MORE DETAIL SEE ATTACHMENT OR VISIT: www.paymark.co.nz/insights/

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