Quake already hitting Canterbury retail economy | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Canterbury businesses are doing a third less trade than the same time last year in the wake of the massive earthquake on Saturday, Paymark figures show.

Electronics payment provider Paymark said total spending across its network in Canterbury on the weekend was down 32 percent -- an $8.1 million year-on-year deficit.

Saturday sales were down 43 percent, and Sunday sales 18 percent on last year.

Amongst the hardest hit were stores that would normally have grabbed Father's Day attention -- gift stores ( down 81 percent), camera/photo shops (down 79 percent) and electronics stores (down 77 percent).

Paymark chief executive Simon Tong said it was working to help retailers get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

``We're doing all that we can to help those affected by the crisis and are offering businesses that have been unable to trade over the past few days a waiver on some, or all, of their terminal fees to help ease the burden,'' he said.

It had already been a tough winter for Canterbury retailers, with year-on-year statistics showing it down 0.6 percent for August.

Difficult winter trading was felt by much of the country, with spending outside of petrol stations and supermarkets down by 0.4 percent on August 2009, and annual growth only 0.2 percent over the last four months.