Card spending falls off a cliff across many categories in April: ANZ

Tuesday, 5 May 2026

Spending on both discretionary and non-discretionary items fell off a cliff across many categories last month, with an “unusually large” fall in grocery spending noted in seasonally adjusted figures.

Higher fuel prices are crowding everything else out, according to NZ card spending data for April compiled by ANZ, with people spending 0.9% more at fuel, charging and service stations on top of a 20.6% hike in March, shortly after the war in Iran began.

The higher cost of fuel is also a reason annual growth in spending has tracked up. But it crowds out spending elsewhere.

Hospitality was in slightly better fettle in April, with spending on food and drink falling just 0.2% in the month. But this followed a 2.7% fall in March.

Spending in the apparel category fell another 1.5% in April on top of a 2.5% fall in March.

Even second-hand goods stores saw a 3.3% drop in spending, on top of 3.2% last month, spelling certain trouble for ledgers at the many non-profits supported by these stores.

The fact that non-discretionary spending was also seeing notable drops was noteworthy - with a 1.4% drop in spending on groceries, amounting to many millions of dollars not spent. The yearly spend on groceries in New Zealand is around $22 billion.

People are spending less, but for what they are buying, they are getting less. Food price inflation has been around 4-5% over the past year.

Even health and beauty, which is normally largely recession-proof, was affected this time around. There was a 2.8% month-on-month fall in health & beauty services and a 1.9% fall in hairdressing.

Hairdressing’s monthly fall was its largest in more than a year.

The sharp fall in engineering & surveying wasn’t a good omen for the construction sector, the report noted.

“These are decent falls in the context of typical monthly moves in these sectors,” it said.

Some of the most dramatic falls could be seen in travel plans. There was a 19.3% fall in spending at airlines and airports in April, and a 32.1% fall at tour and travel agencies.

Spending at car and truck dealerships fell 7.9% after the March spike in EV sales, but motorcycle and bike shops were the exception (up 0.8% and 1.9% respectively)

In terms of real card spending - spending that adjusts for inflation - the data suggests real card spending is roughly flat year-on-year. Annual growth for most sectors is still up on last year, but spending on cars and fuel comprised the biggest chunk, at the expense of most other categories.