Visa Consumer Spending Index shows further spending growth
Visa's Irish Consumer Spending Index, which measures the rates of spending across all segments and payment types, has revealed yet another increase in Irish consumers' spending - the seventeenth consecutive monthly increase - albeit at a slower rate than the previous month.
Print15 August 2018
Visa’s Irish Consumer Spending Index, which measures expenditure across all payment types, has revealed continued growth of household expenditure during July. While the results represent the seventeenth consecutive month of growth, the pace of that growth was slower than that which was seen in June.
The study, produced for Visa by IHS Markit, shows that consumer spending rose +2.3% year-on-year in July. This is down from the 5.5% increase seen in June but still signalling a solid pace of growth for the month.
Meanwhile, the rate of spending in eCommerce grew by 4.9% year-on-year, as above, this is a consecutive increase, but a reduced rate for the third month running.
Nonetheless, the increase was much sharper than what was seen through Face-to-Face channels, where spending was up only by 1%.
In specific categories, the Household Goods sector continued to record the sharpest rate of expansion of the eight broad categories, with spending up +8.1% year-on-year in July. Marked increases were also seen in the Transport & Communication (+5.6%) and Hotels, Restaurants & Bars (+5.0%) sectors.
Six of the eight categories registered slower increases in expenditure than in June. Food & Drink spending (+4.2%) continued to rise solidly, while modest expansions were recorded in Recreation & Culture (+0.8%) and Health & Education (+1.2%.)
The only sector to see an outright decline in spending in July was Clothing & Footwear. The -0.7% year-on-year reduction in expenditure in the sector ended an eight-month sequence of growth.
Philip Konopik, Ireland country manager, Visa said that the ongoing rise in Irish consumer spending reflects the “buoyancy” of the economy. “July expansion is typically weaker,” Konopik said, “as it is normally a period when retailers hold sales.”
Related Articles
Visa: Irish consumer spending fell in October →
Fans 0
Followers