New Zealand's core retail industry did not see the expected rise in electronic card spending in August, with spending remaining flat from July, figures released by Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) show.

Seasonally adjusted figures show a 0.1% increase in core retail electronic card spending over the month, compared to a 0.3% increase in overall card spending in August. Core retail excludes vehicle related industries.

Stats NZ said the slight rise in overall transactions was mainly due to an increase in non-retail transactions. "In August 2009, the core retail industry groups were all flat or slightly down," Stats NZ said.

Transactions in the broader retail group were up 0.2%, with a small increase in fuel retailing.

"Trends for the value of transactions in the total, retail, and core retail series have all been increasing since January 2009. Latest figures indicate that the growth rate for the retail series has flattened, while for core retail the growth rate has slowed," Stats NZ said.

Unadjusted figures show total card spending in August was up 0.9% from August 2008.

Credit card use continued to drop away in August with debit card use on the increase over the past year. The proportion of transactions with credit cards was 43.2% in August, from 43.7% in July.

"Credit card use accounted for 44.8 percent of transactions in the year to August 2009, the 11th consecutive month to show a decrease," Stats NZ said.

"The total number of transactions for the year to August 2009 was 1,064 million compared with 1,009 million for the year to August 2008. The average transaction value for the year to August 2009 was $53 compared with $55 for the year to August 2008."

In the August month alone, the average transaction value was NZ$51.60, the second lowest figure since this series began in December 2002. In May this year, the average transaction value dropped to NZ$51.40 and it has hovered around this region in the past few months. This compares to an average transaction value of NZ$54.15 in August 2008.