Consumer spending increases by 5.6% in June – Visa

Visa Europe's Consumer Spending Index figures have been released, showing sharp increases in the areas of recreation, travel and household spending

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The latest figures in Visa Europe’s regular Irish Consumer Spending Index have been published, showing an increase of 5.6% during June from the same period last year. This represents the best recorded growth since Visa Europe began monitoring data. Furthermore, the average increase for the second quarter of 2015 was recorded at 4.6%, an increase of 0.2% from the previous quarter.

The data revealed a large jump in expenditure for online goods and services, reflecting a trend that is apparent in all areas. Total online spending in June grew by a healthy 13.6% – considerably higher than the 6% increase seen in the previous month – while over the counter spending grew by 2.5%.

In terms of categories and spending patterns, spending wtih online travel agencies was up sharply, as was spending at cinemas (online and face-to-face); these two increases lead to an increase in Recreation & Culture spending of 9.1%, compared to one year ago. Meanwhile, the Transport & Communication category showed a 7.4% increase with increased spending on airlines and cars, while spending also rose sharply in the Household Goods category (11.9%).

Visa Europe’s country manager Conor Langford said these increases in consumer spending across the board were due to higher levels of consumer confidence. “This growth in consecutive quarters is a real positive in terms of the continued momentum behind the Irish economy,” he said.

Paul Smith, senior economist at Markit, added: “Whiel there will be some heightened concern over the impact that the Greek debt crisis will have on wider economic growth, Irish consumers seem happy to shrug off this uncertainty, raising their spending in a broad-based manner during June.”

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