Data Collection
Electronic Card Transactions
Electronic Card Transactions (ECT) is a monthly series that covers debit, credit, and charge card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants. This information can be used as an indicator of the change in the level of consumption expenditure and economic activity in general.
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Data source
We produce statistics on electronic card transactions from aggregated administrative data generated in the process of administering New Zealand-based electronic transactions. The data are supplied in a highly aggregated form and include goods and services tax (GST).
Industry group descriptions
The table below describes the eight aggregated industry groups commonly referred to in the Electronic Card Transactions (ECT) information release text.
Aggregated industry groups in ECT releases | |
Industry group | Descriptor |
---|---|
Consumables | Includes food and liquor retailing |
Durables | Includes furniture, hardware, and appliance retailing; pharmacy, cosmetic, and toiletry retailing |
Hospitality | Includes accommodation, bars, cafes and restaurants, and takeaway retailing |
Apparel | Includes clothing, soft-goods, and footwear retailing |
Motor vehicles | Includes automotive parts and accessories; vehicle and tyre retailing |
Fuel | Automotive fuel retailing |
Services | Includes personal and household services, including hire and repair; automotive electrical and repair services |
Non-retail (excluding services) | Includes travel and health, and wholesaling |
Note: The core retail series comprises the consumables, durables, hospitality, and apparel industry groups. The retail series comprises the core retail series plus the motor vehicles and fuel industry groups. |
Coverage
The ECT series includes:
debit, credit, and charge card transactions with New Zealand-based merchants
card-present transactions at the point of sale, whether authorised by PIN, signature, or through contactless methods like PayWave.
card-not-present transactions where the card is not presented directly at a point-of-sale terminal
GST
The ECT series excludes:
all credit card transactions with non-New Zealand-based merchants (eg via the Internet, telephone, or mail order)
transactions by New Zealand cardholders while overseas
cash, cheque, or hire purchase transactions
automatic payments or direct debits from bank accounts
Internet bank account payments
withdrawals from ATMs.
Interpreting the data
Aggregated industry groups
The ECT is published at varying levels of aggregation, including three composite levels and eight aggregated industry groups, as follows:
- Electronic card transactions – core retail industries
A subset of retail electronic card transactions, excluding the motor vehicle-related industries (ANZSIC groups G1110 motor vehicles and parts retailing and G1120 fuel retailing). Motor vehicles and parts generally have low rates of electronic transactions.
The core retail industry is split in 4: consumables / durables / hospitality / apparel
- Electronic card transactions – retail industries
A subset of total electronic card transactions covering these ANZSIC06 industries: retail trade (ANZSIC division G) and accommodation and food services (ANZSIC division H).
The retail industries level is made of the core retail industries, the motor vehicles industry and fuel industry.
- Electronic card transactions – total
- The total electronic card transactions consist of retail industries, services industries, and non-retail (excluding services) industries.
Published levels
We publish the following series for the industry groups and the aggregated industries:
values – actual (unadjusted), seasonally adjusted, and trend
volumes (number of transactions) – actual (unadjusted).
These series are published monthly. Quarterly series are published with the releases for March, June, September and December months.
We also publish the following series for the total electronic card transactions for the year ended March and per quarter:
averages – value per transaction, number of transactions per head of population, value of transactions per head of population
proportions (by value) – debit card transactions as proportion of total, credit card transactions as proportion of total, ECT core retail as proportion of retail trade survey (RTS) core, ECT retail as proportion of RTS total
Note: The following series are also available per month: value per transaction, debit card transactions as proportion of total, and credit card transactions as proportion of total.
Seasonally adjusted series
We produce the seasonally adjusted and trend series using the X-13-ARIMA-SEATS package developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, to comply with international best practice. Seasonal adjustment aims to eliminate the impact of regular seasonal events (such as annual cycles in agricultural production, winter, or annual holidays) on time series. This makes the data for adjacent months and quarters more comparable. The seasonally adjusted figures are updated every month and quarter. This enables the seasonal component to be better estimated and removed from the series. For ECT, the three unadjusted (actual) series (for the value of total, retail, and core retail electronic card transactions) have similar seasonal patterns, peaking in December each year.
The X-13-ARIMA-SEATS seasonal adjustment package is very robust. However, problems occur when there is an abrupt change in the seasonal variation, as with other seasonal adjustment packages. Stats NZ use additive outlier treatment to control for the effects of extreme outliers. From the release of ECT data for the April 2024 month onwards, we adopted an automated method to identify large outliers from March 2020 onwards, covering periods significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. See Seasonal adjustment and automatic outliers in time series after COVID-19 for more information about this method.
The seasonally adjusted series for ECT are adjusted independently of each other, therefore, the sum of the component categories may differ to the total.
Estimated trend
For any series, we can break the estimates down into three components: trend, seasonal, and irregular. We have removed the seasonal component from the seasonally adjusted series, and we have removed both the seasonal and the irregular components from the trend series.
Trend estimates reveal the underlying direction of movement in a series, and are likely to indicate turning points more accurately than seasonally adjusted estimates. We calculate the trend series using the X-13ARIMA-SEATS seasonal adjustment package. They are based on an 11-, 13-, or 23-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted series, with an adjustment for outlying values.
Trend and seasonally adjusted estimates towards the end of the series incorporate new data as they become available and can therefore change as more observations are added to the series. Revisions can be particularly large if an observation is treated as an outlier in one month, but is found to be part of the underlying trend as further observations are added to the series.
Seasonal patterns
The three unadjusted series (for the value of total, retail, and core retail electronic card transactions) have similar seasonal patterns, peaking in December each year. The three ECT series for the number of total, retail, and core retail electronic card transactions have similar patterns to those for the transaction values, peaking each December.
COVID-19 impacts on the data and seasonal adjustments
There were ongoing challenges in recognising and specially treating factors that should be allowed to influence seasonal adjustment calculations from those that are extraordinary. COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions, and the removal of these had varying impacts on all our series over time.
Impact of COVID-19 on seasonally adjusted and trend series has more information.
As COVID-19 impacts largely diminished from our time series we updated our approach to seasonal adjustment and introduced the new Stats NZ standard for treating extreme outliers using additive outliers with publication of April 2024 results. These enhancements also allowed us to start publishing trend levels and hospitality seasonally adjusted series again.
Differences between the ECT series and the Retail Trade Survey
A significant proportion of spending using debit and credit cards takes place in the retail sector. The Retail Trade Survey (RTS) also collects sales information about the retail sector from retail establishments. Given the similarities in coverage of the two series, it is expected they may be comparable. However, users should be aware that there are a number of differences between the two series that affect comparison between them. We describe these differences below.
Coverage
The RTS includes payments made by cash, cheque, and hire purchase, in addition to electronic card.
Coverage differences between the Electronic Card Transaction series and the Retail Trade Survey | ||
Cash sale | Credit sale | |
Electronic Card Transaction series | Debit card |
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Retail Trade Survey |
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GST
Electronic card transaction data include GST, whereas the RTS collects sales data excluding GST. GST is not separately identified in the ECT data.
Timing issues
Several timing differences exist between the ECT series and RTS.
Electronic transactions occur instantly at the point of sale, whereas many retailers operate on an accrual accounting basis (recording a sale before any money has changed hands).
Instalments on lay-bys may be paid electronically but are not recorded as a sale by the retailer until the goods are picked up.
Gift vouchers may be purchased electronically but are not recorded as a sale until they are redeemed.
Classification issues
We have developed ECT series that relate to the industry coverage of the RTS. We matched merchant codes from the data suppliers to our industrial classifications. There are instances where the classification allocations used by the suppliers differ from ours. This results in some coverage differences at the industry and overall retail level.
Differences observed in data series
We have compared the quarterly ECT series with the RTS. The results indicate the following.
Movements in the actual (unadjusted) values of electronic card transactions provide a good indication of the direction of the RTS actuals, as the two series usually move in the same direction.
Movements in ECT actuals are frequently different in magnitude compared with movements in RTS actuals.
The differences found in the actuals data flow through to comparisons of the ECT and RTS seasonally adjusted series, which can differ in the direction and size of the movement.
These differences have generally been outside the acceptable tolerances indicated by data users for the use of the ECT series as a predictor of movements in the RTS.
Given these differences, we do not recommend using the ECT series as an indicator or predictor of the RTS series.
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