Shoppers in Otago opened their wallets during March, 5.4 million transactions being made in the month, which was 8.8% ahead of the 4.95 million transactions recorded in March 2014.
Paymark's electronic transaction report released yesterday showed the value of the transactions in Otago increased 7.9% to $260.6 million from $241.4 million.
South Canterbury and Invercargill both had increases in transactions of 3.6% and 1.5% respectively, but in both cases the amount spent fell.
South Canterbury's value of spending fell 0.6% to $73 million in March and Southland's spending fell 1% to $104.9 million. Southland's fall was the second largest percentage fall after Taranaki's 1.9%.
In the report, overall spending through Paymark increased 5% between March 2014 and March this year. Transactions in March numbered nearly 98 million, up 7.7%, and totalled $4.6 billion.
Annual spending growth was 7.3% once transactions at fuel outlets were excluded, slightly above the 7% ex fuel growth rate of 2014.
In seasonally adjusted terms, ex fuel spending increased 1.4% between February and March and 2.2% for the March quarter.
The annual growth to March was strongest among accommodation (up 15.9%) and food and beverage providers (up 9.5%).
Furniture, hardware and building supply outlet spending growth (up 7.3%) remained strong _ especially within Auckland Northland and the Bay of Plenty. However, the national growth rate continued to slow.
Slow spending growth was recorded among clothing, footwear and personal accessory stores and electrical goods retailers. In between were department stores (up 7%) and supermarket, specialty food and liquor shops (up 5%).
Paymark acting head of sales and marketing Mark Spicer said a huge jump in spending on the weekend of March 14 and 15 showed the effect weather could have on spending patterns and the need to be mindful of a wide set of factors when interpreting payment patterns.
Spending through Paymark during that weekend was up $29.4 million, or 11.5%, on the same weekend in 2014. A combination of bad weather in 2014 and the approach of Cyclone Pam this year appeared to be behind the increase.
Gisborne suffered the largest percentage fall in spending when Cyclone Pam swept through this year, with spending down 39.4% on Monday, March 16, compared with the corresponding Monday last year.
