CORRECT NZ spending rises 2.6 percent in Christmas week from 2011 as Canterbury bounces back

CORRECT NZ spending rises 2.6 percent in Christmas week from 2011 as Canterbury bounces back
(Fixes names of Paymark CEO in third paragraph) Dec. 24 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealanders spent 2.6 percent more in the week leading up to Christmas this year than they did a year ago, due mainly to a resurgent Canterbury region that wasn't reeling from yet another earthquake. Retail spending rose to $1.33 billion in the week ended Dec. 23, from $1.29 billion in the same week a year earlier, according to Paymark figures, which account for about three quarters of all electronic transactions. Almost a third of that increase came from Canterbury...