Shoppers pick up pace

A surge of Eftpos and credit card transactions shows New Zealanders are picking up the purchasing pace in the lead-up to Christmas.

Electronic transactions using the Paymark network showed the volume of national transactions have jumped 6.7 percent in the week from Monday 7 December to Sunday December 13, the company said.

Paymark processed 19,014,168 transactions, with a total spend of $1.74 billion.

The week's peak hour was last Saturday, between 12pm and 1pm, with retailers completing 318,831 transactions. 

``Kiwis have really started to pick up the pace with 11 days to go. If we look at spending patterns and trends from the last 20 years, we can expect to see more of the same as the year comes to a close,'' Paymark chief executive Simon Tong said.

Paymark processed 75 percent of the country's Eftpos and credit card transactions, with about 73,000 merchants and 100,000 terminals on its network, the company said.

- NZPA