After passing 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19, and with life returning to normal (minus international travel), New Zealand consumers threw open their purse strings:
“For a third consecutive month, card spending on the long-lasting goods (durables) remained at higher levels than last year, after falling sharply during April’s COVID-19 lockdown when stores were shut,” retail statistics manager Kathy Hicks said.
In actual terms, spending on durables had the largest retail industry increase, up $259 million (20 percent) compared with July 2019.
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Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
