Consumer spending through all Core Retail merchants in Worldline NZ’s payments network in June 2025 reached $3.60B, which is up +0.8% on June 2024, following adjustments for merchants coming and going from the network.
Bruce Proffit, Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, says the slightly higher level of spending in June this year follows a similar pattern seen in the previous two months.
“Core Retail spending had lifted above year-ago levels in April and May, and the continued modest annual growth in June will mean the just-completed June quarter will be the first quarter of annual growth since early 2025.”
Proffit says while the 1.2% annual growth rate for the quarter may not be high, the turnaround may prove significant in the second half of 2025.
“While June is historically the slowest month of the year for retail merchants, June this year was set to be even slower than last year given a Monday replaced a Saturday in the calendar. So, it is especially encouraging to see positive annual growth recorded.”
Figure 1: All Cards NZ underlying* spending annual growth through Worldline in recent quarters for NZ core retail merchants (*Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline).
However, Proffit also says figures recorded through Hospitality sector merchants point out some of the mixed nature of consumer spending at present.
“The consumer spend at Hospitality merchants in Worldline NZ’s network was $0.85B over June 2025 and down -2.4% on 2024 but differed across the country,” he says.
“The decline was greater in Auckland/Northland (-4.3%), while the decline was only slight in Nelson (-0.5%), with the Nelson fall largely due to Hospitality spending dropping an average of -21% on the final Thursday-to-Saturday in the month, due to major weather events.”
Notably, consumer spending was up in the Waikato region (+3.3%), both before and after the annual mid-month Fieldays event held at Mystery Creek, Hamilton.
Within the total Core Retail sector, annual spending growth for June was highest in Whanganui (+6.9%), Taranaki (+4.1%) and Nelson (+4.0%), while spending declined on the same month last year in Wellington (-1.8%) and Auckland/Northland (-0.7%).
| WORLDLINE All Cards underlying* spending for CORE RETAIL merchants for June 2025 | ||
| Value | Underlying value* | |
| Region | transactions $millions | Annual % change on 2024 |
| Auckland/Northland | 1,354 | -0.7% |
| Waikato | 305 | 2.1% |
| BOP | 247 | 0.5% |
| Gisborne | 34 | 3.9% |
| Taranaki | 86 | 4.1% |
| Hawke’s Bay | 128 | 3.0% |
| Whanganui | 50 | 5.2% |
| Palmerston North | 114 | 1.9% |
| Wairarapa | 41 | 1.3% |
| Wellington | 313 | -1.8% |
| Nelson | 71 | 4.0% |
| Marlborough | 44 | -2.1% |
| West Coast | 24 | 2.0% |
| Canterbury | 438 | 2.2% |
| South Canterbury | 57 | 3.6% |
| Otago | 208 | 2.1% |
| Southland | 84 | 1.2% |
| New Zealand | 3,602 | 0.8% |
Figure 2: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline in June 2025 for core retail merchants (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)
