New data from the country's biggest bank shows the impact of the start of the fuel price rise on New Zealanders' spending.
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ
Card spending at fuel stations jumped almost 30% in March, or 20.6% when seasonally adjusted.
Chief economist Sharon Zollner said, using Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment fuel price data, it seemed that almost all of the increase was due to prices, not volumes.
"Fuel volumes actually went up a little bit despite the cost increase because there's been lots of stories about people making sure that their car is full and farmers filling up their utes and whatnot, just in case.
"That would have been offset by people probably driving less because the cost of driving has increased but that netted out to a small volume increase."
The Associate Energy Minister spoke to Breakfast’s Tova O’Brien about the situation. (Source: Breakfast)
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said it did seem people were stocking up because they were worried fuel could be more expensive if they did not buy it now, or because they were worried about the security of supply.
"Now they've fuelled up as much as possible, they're probably responding by cutting back in terms of their driving behaviour and fuel use as much as possible."
Spending on public transport was up 14.2%.
Spending at car and truck dealers lifted 14.8% as EV sales lifted sharply. There were 2890 full battery electric vehicles registered last month, the single biggest since the end of the clean car discount and four times the number of March last year.
But there were signs that people might have been shifting their spending – spending at fast food, cafes, restaurants and bars dropped in the month.
"Some people have a buffer that they can use to smooth things out but quite a lot of people don't and so if they're having to have to drive and they have to fill up the car then it leaves less money over for other things and so it looks like hospitality took a bit of a hit.
"With only one month of data you've got to be a little bit cautious because these things do bounce around a bit month to month but it was pretty consistent across bars, cafes and restaurants and fast food. It all saw a drop in the month so I suspect that's not coincidence."
Airlines passing on fuel surcharges while there are calls to prioritise emergency aviation services. (Source: 1News)
Secondhand shop spending also dropped, which Zollner said might reflect the impact of fuel prices on lower-income households.
She said there was also a drop in spending in supermarkets, which could reflect people being more careful about their grocery shopping.
Overall, card spending rose 1.2% in March when seasonally adjusted, and was up 6.2% compared to a year earlier.
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