A economist says New Zealanders appear to have gotten a spending hangover

Kiwibank's Summer Spending Tracker shows December kicked off on a good note with transactions up 0.4-percent compared to in 2024.

But the number of transactions then dropped in January to 2.3-below last year's levels.

Economist Sabrina Delgado says poor early February figures also suggest people have prioritised spending for December.

She says household budgets are still doing it tough despite dropping interest rates.