Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Securing the economic recovery in New Zealand is being supported by household spending. Today, Statistics New Zealand announced that seasonally adjusted retail card spending rose to $6.1 billion in April, the highest it has been this year, and up 4 percent on the previous month. The gains have been broad-based, led by the hospitality sector, groceries, apparel, and household durables. While there was a large increase on April 2020 levels, when the country was in lockdown, card spending in April was also up on 2019, rising by 6 percent. The durables industry saw the largest increase compared with April 2019, and this industry includes spending on things like furniture, sporting goods, and pharmaceutical products, and shopping in department stores. 