New Zealanders stopped spending in almost every category except travel and entertainment last month, according to card spending figures released by ANZ this week.
The bank’s monthly card spending chartpack, published on 4 September with data for August, shows spending on ANZ cards was flat for the month once normal seasonal patterns are stripped out. Annual growth eased from 6.1 percent in July to 4.1 percent in August.
That headline number sits almost exactly on top of the inflation rate. Stats NZ figures show the consumers price index rose 4.1 percent in the 12 months to the June 2026 quarter, the most recent quarterly reading. Card spending is counted in dollars rather than in items bought, so growth that merely keeps pace with prices means households are buying roughly the same amount and paying more for it.
ANZ offered one possible explanation and then talked itself out of it. “Bad weather may have impacted, but the data is seasonally adjusted, and August is seldom joyful weather-wise,” the bank said in its summary of the month.
The sharpest numbers are in hospitality, which makes up about 15 percent of card spending. Spending in the category fell 1.0 percent for the month, giving up half the lift it had recorded in July, and every store type inside it went backwards. Annual growth in hospitality collapsed from 7.3 percent in July to 0.6 percent in August.
Broken down, the picture is worse again. Spending at cafes and restaurants was 1.9 percent lower than in August a year earlier. Accommodation spending was down 4.3 percent on the year. Bar spending was up just 1.5 percent, having been up 11.2 percent the month before. Only fast food and the volatile catering and parties line, which ANZ says is driven by large events including sport, held meaningful annual growth.
Those are dollar figures, not volumes. With food costs and wages both higher than a year ago, a cafe putting the same money through the till as last August is serving fewer people. It is the same story told from a different angle by the closure figures, with almost 3000 hospitality businesses stopping trading over the past year.
Housing-linked spending was soft too. The housing durables group, which covers furniture, appliances, hardware and floor coverings, fell 1.3 percent for the month, and ANZ said every store type in the category declined. It remains 4.8 percent above a year ago. ANZ describes the group as sensitive to how the housing market is faring, and the housing market has been going sideways for some time.
Groceries barely moved. Consumables, the biggest single slice of card spending at about 28 percent, rose 2.2 percent on the year, down from 3.6 percent. Grocery and convenience stores were up 2.5 percent and bakeries up 5.1 percent, both well short of the overall inflation rate. Beer, wine and liquor stores were 4.3 percent down on a year ago, and ANZ noted that spending at specialist liquor stores has been trending down for five years.
Apparel was the flattest line of all, up 0.9 percent on the year after an 8.5 percent annual rise the month before.
Then there are the bright spots, and they are genuinely bright. Tourism and recreation spending rose 2.3 percent for the month and was 8.8 percent higher than a year earlier. Spending at airlines and airports was up 9.4 percent on the year, which ANZ calls part of an ongoing recovery in travel both inward and outbound. Taxis and limousines were up 16.2 percent on the year and 16.9 percent for the month.
Cinemas are having a year. Spending at movie theatres was 77.4 percent higher than in August 2025 and up 10.1 percent in the month alone, following a 20.4 percent annual rise in July. Live theatre and ticket agencies were up 11.3 percent on the year and 20.3 percent for the month. “Movie theatres had a strong month, as did other ticketed entertainment,” ANZ said. Whatever is getting people out of the house, it is not restaurants.
Fuel is still the loudest thing in the data. Spending at fuel, charging and service stations fell 1.5 percent for the month but was 8.0 percent higher than a year earlier, down from 10.9 percent annual growth the month before. That is mostly a price story. Stats NZ reported petrol prices up 27.5 percent and diesel up 71 percent in the year to the June quarter, and said that if petrol and diesel prices had not changed, annual inflation would have been 2.9 percent rather than 4.1 percent.
“Higher petrol prices accounted for almost a quarter of the 4.1 percent annual increase,” Stats NZ prices and deflators spokesperson Nicola Growden said when the figures were released in July. You can follow what pump prices are doing week to week in our fuel prices tracker.
The rest of the motor vehicle category is grim reading for dealers. Car and truck dealers were 4.1 percent down on the year, motorcycle shops down 2.1 percent, and motor home hire and sales down 11.3 percent. ANZ said no store type in the category saw stronger spending than in July, and only fuel and charging stations were ahead of a year ago.
A couple of smaller details sit in the tables and say something about the month New Zealand actually had. Carparking away from airports rose 2.6 percent. Golf club spending fell 11.7 percent on the year and 8.2 percent for the month. And laundromats, of all things, boomed. “Laundromats had a great month, maybe the wet weather meant paying for drying was worth it,” ANZ said.
Some caution is warranted with the numbers. The chartpack covers spending on one bank’s cards rather than every transaction in the country, it excludes financial services and buy-now-pay-later, and ANZ warns the figures are subject to revision as seasonal factors change. Stats NZ publishes its own electronic card transactions series for August later this month, which will give a broader read on the same period.
ANZ’s own summary of the longer trend is more encouraging than a single flat month suggests. Adjusting card spending for the consumers price index gives a rough measure of what people are actually buying, and on that basis the bank said real card spending “has been growing only very modestly for the past year or so, but annual growth has trended up for the past two years”. Every spending group was ahead of a year ago in dollar terms, which ANZ pointed out is not historically unusual when inflation is positive, though it has been unusual in recent years.
The August figures suggest a country that is out and about but eating in. Flights, cabs, theatre tickets and popcorn are selling. Dinner, a new sofa and a bottle of wine are not. You can track the wider economic picture on our New Zealand Economy Now page.
Does this match what you are seeing in your own household budget, or in your own business? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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