Visa: latest Irish Consumer Spending Index published
Visa has published its latest Consumer Spending Index report, illustrating a slight slowdown in spending in Ireland
Print14 November 2016
Visa has published the latest figures in its Consumer Spending Index, which monitors and analyses consumer spending habits across all payment types. While the Index shows increases in spending during October, as expected, the annual rate of expansion slowed to its weakest in almost a year and a half.
Across all payment types (cash, cheque, electronic), expenditure rose by 4.3% year-on-year. This is lower than September’s increase of 5%, and the weakest increase since May 2015. Aswell as this, the expansion was lower than the average seen across all months since the Index was established 26 months ago.
This slowdown is not unexpected; there has been an trend of weaker increases in expenditure in the second half of 2016, compared to the first six months of the year.
Drilling into the more specific spending sectors, Visa’s Consumer Spending Index reveals that face-to-face spending was down by -0.4%. It’s a small reduction, but still the first decline in the series so far.
In contrast, eCommerce rose sharply in the latest report – +15% year-on-year. This is partially due to the collapse in sterling, making UK online retailers an attractive option for Irish online shoppers.
Meanwhile, spending on clothing and footwear continued to fall, by 2.8% – the third consecutive monthly decline and the sharpest in two years.
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