“The latest figures are a promising indicator that consumer spending does have the potential to soften the blow COVID-19 will have on our economy,” Elphick said.
Compared to the previous week, Elphick said spending had picked up significantly in all retail categories other than the Food, Liquor and Pharmacies category.
“The lowering of the alert level to 2 was particularly evident in the Clothing, Footwear and Dept. Stores and Home and Recreational categories, which increased by 81.4 and 54.7 percentage points respectively, compared to the previous week.”
Supermarkets continue to exhibit increased business in dollar terms (up by around 14.5 per cent compared to the same week last year).
Breakdown of Spending Figures:
| Retail Type | Weekly change: (percentage point change between 10 May & 17 May 2020) |
| Food, Liquor & Pharmacies | +1% |
| Hospitality & Accommodation | +23.8% |
| Fuel & Automotive | +12.4% |
| Clothing, Footwear & Dept. Stores | +81.4% |
| Home & Recreational Retailing | +54.7% |
| Overall | +25.8% |
| Retail Type | Week ending 17 May; compared to same week last year |
| Food, Liquor & Pharmacies | +14.5% |
| Hospitality & Accommodation | -44.8% |
| Fuel & Automotive | -36.2% |
| Clothing, Footwear & Dept. Stores | -15.0% |
| Home & Recreational Retailing | -19.1% |
| International |
-42.4% |
| Domestic | -9.3% |
| NZ, all spending | -11.2% |
