New Zealand Card Sales for May: Retail -1.1% m/m and -1.6% y/y

Data for purchases made in New Zealand on debit, credit and store cards.

Card spending data covers around 68% of core retail sales in NZ. Its used as the main retail sales indicator for the country.

The m/m is worse than in April, but the y.y shows some improvement (still down y/y though). A bit of a mixed bag. Despite the volatility of monthly data the bigger picture in NZ is an economy weighed down by an elevated cash rate. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand induced a recession, necessary it said, to help curb inflation. Its not pleasant being a central banker sometimes.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.