The amount of personal credit card balances outstanding fell in May from April, while the amount of advances incurring interest rose over the month, figures released by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) show.

Interest -bearing advances of NZ$3.518 billion made up 70.7% of the NZ$4.979 billion of total personal credit card advances in May, up slightly from April. This was below the recent high of 71.7% in February, but was still the second highest monthly proportion of advances incurring interest since February 2005.

Total personal advances outstanding fell slightly from April. The figures indicate consumers spent less with their credit cards, but failed to pay off existing balances.

Meanwhile, further RBNZ figures show total credit limits for personal and business credit cards fell by NZ$18 million in June from May to NZ$17.59 billion. This was its lowest level since August last year (see third tab on this interactive chart. There was a series break in the data in August 2008, contributing to the visible drop between July and August 2008.)