All 16 Sectors Increased For the Year, Overall Up by Nearly 7 Percent

View 4th Qtr 2013 Hawaii Business Activity Report (pdf, 7 KB)

(Honolulu, Hawaii January 19, 2014) – The fourth quarter 2013 First Hawaiian Bank Business Activity Report (BAR) showed a 2.29 percent increase for debit and credit card "same store sales" over the comparable period of 2012, according to an announcement today by Keith Nagata, senior vice president and First Hawaiian Bank Business Services Division manager.  For all of 2013, credit and debit card sales transactions increased by 6.90 percent over the previous year.

"The top three sectors Medical Services, Home Improvement and Home Furnishing finished strong in the fourth quarter, resulting in the highest ever quarterly increase for those sectors since 2010," Nagata said. "We also saw positive gains in all 16 industry sectors for the year." 

According to the report, 11 of the 16 sectors were up in the fourth quarter.  Three sectors posted double digit increases in sales volumes:  Medical Services 22.72 percent, Home Improvement 12.94 percent and Home Furnishings 10.46 percent.  These were the highest fourth quarter increases for these three sectors and the first time that Medical Services and Home Improvement came in at the top two slots.   All 16 sectors posted positive growth for the full year, with five sectors posting double digit increases:  Hotels 12.04 percent, Medical Services 11.50 percent; Shipping 11.19 percent, Insurance 10.73 percent, and Home Improvement 10.31 percent.

The BAR tracks debit and credit sales activity in 16 different economic sectors including automobile, retail, hotels, home improvement, restaurants, shipping and travel, among other categories.

First Hawaiian Bank is the largest local processor of credit and debit card transactions in Hawaii.  In 2013, the bank processed $4.4 billion worth of customer credit and debit card sales transactions.  The bank provides merchant services to nearly 7,000 First Hawaiian Bank merchant locations throughout Hawaii, Guam, CNMI and the U.S. Mainland. 

First Hawaiian Bank (fhb.com) with total assets of $16.7 billion was founded in 1858 and is Hawaii's largest and oldest bank. The bank processes all major U.S. credit cards as well as JCB, China Union Pay and BC Global Card.