December 2025 didn’t quite ring the tills the way retailers had hoped. December 2025 continued the downward slide, with spend -1.8% less than December 2024.
This festive month, the only people rejoicing were the retailers in the Groceries & Liquor and Fuel & Automotive industries, whose spend was up 3.0% and 1.2% respectively.
New Zealanders contracted their spend by -2.3% from last December, whilst Internationals added +5.4% more.
This tightness of Kiwi wallets is not felt equally throughout, with cardholders from Selwyn and Stratford Districts taking top two spots as our big spenders, spending 12.7% and 11.7% more respectively.
Internationals were led by visitors from America (up 12.0%) and India (up 9.7%).
Tuesday 23rd December was the highest day of spend in December 2025 and was followed closely by Christmas Eve. Boxing Day has got nothing on the month (or November’s Black Friday for that matter). It was probably diluted by the fact that Boxing Day sales started well before Christmas was had! How tasteless.
Key insights for December 2025
- Consumer spending dropped -1.8% in December 2025, when compared to December 2024.
- Transactions dropped more, down -2.3%, showing a continued attempt to contain spend.
- Groceries & Liquor and Fuel & Automotive were the only storetypes that saw growth this month, up +3.0% and +1.2% respectively.
- Internationals increased spend by +5.4%. Key markets of growth include USA (+12.0%), and India (+9.7%).
- Domestics dropped spend by -2.3%. Of note are Selwyn and Stratford cardholders who drove spend by +12.7% and 11.7% respectively.
- A storetype breakdown is detailed in the table below:
