Panic buying may have boosted grocery sales

Wed, 11 Mar 2020

The covid-19 outbreak may have boosted spending on groceries last month but it was probably a drag on hospitality and poses more challenges yet, economists warn.Total retail card spending in February rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent from the month before, following a 0.2 percent fall in January, Stats NZ said.The biggest increase was on grocery food and drink, which lifted 2.4 percent, or $51 million, to $2.17 billion.“It’s possible that increases in supermarket sales resulted from concerns around covid-19,” Stats NZ retail statistics man...

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