Sadly, January’s upturn in consumer spending didn’t continue, with spending in February charting a dramatic downturn when compared to the same month in 2024, down -4.8% (see chart below).
Because February 2024 was a leap year, spend in February 2025 was always likely going to be a decrease on 2025. However, even when comparing 01 to 28 February in 2025 vs 2024, spend still saw a drop, albeit smaller, down -1.4%.
Spend by international visitors was up 3.8% when comparing month on month. But it wasn’t enough to lift the downturn in spending by New Zealand cardholders which dropped -5.5%. Comparing 28-days, spend by Internationals were up 7.3% which helped to cushion the fall in spend by New Zealand cardholders, down -2.1%.
Every single storetype dropped in spend when comparing the 28 days in 2025 to the 29 days in 2024. But when comparing across the first 28 days of February, Apparel and Personal actually saw spend rise (+1.4%), as did Groceries & Liquor (+0.7%).
Key insights for February 2025
- February 2024 was a leap year and therefore most comparisons to same month last year were down in comparison.
- Consumer spending dropped -4.8% while transactions dropped -3.6%.
- When comparing 01 to 28 February in 2025 vs 2024, spend was down 1.4%
- Every storetype saw spend drop, with the least affected being Apparel & Personal, at -2.6% (refer to table below).
- Southland Region was the only region that saw spend rise this month, up 0.5%.
- Compared to January 2019 (pre-pandemic), consumer spending was up 19.8%.
Valentine’s Day
As noted above, consumer spending this month was grim, a drop of -4.8% from the same time last year. However, it hasn’t stopped some from celebrating love! Valentine’s Day was the highest day of spend in February 2025 (see chart below)!
Spending on the 14th of Feb was up 8.1% from the same date last year, up 20.6% on an average day in February 2025 and was up 6.9% from an average Friday in February 2025.
Hawke’s Bay was seemingly where most of the Romeos and Juliets were, up 8.2% on the same date last year, and up 26.3% when compared to an average day in February that same year.
Across the country F&B Services, which includes cafes, restaurants, bars and takeaways, saw the highest spend increase, up 22.2% when compared to Valentine’s Day last year. In the Hawke’s Bay, the highest storetype spend was not in F&B Services but in Apparel and Personal which includes jewellery. It was up 39.7%! Oooh!
And it should also be noted, that it was cardholders from Napier City driving spend on Valentine’s Day, up 12.0%. Everyone else in the Hawke’s Bay actually dropped spend. The Napierites, aye? Who knew?
