Hotels, Restaurants & Bars again see strongest increase in spend
For the third successive month Hotels, Restaurants & Bars saw the strongest increase in spending with the 4.9% rate of expansion quickening from that seen in December according to Visa’s Irish Consumer Spending Index, produced by IHS Markit, which measures expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments).
Hotels, Restaurants & Bars saw the strongest increase in spending in January.
Otherwise, January CSI figures signalled a subdued start to 2020 for Irish household spending.
Consumer spend was broadly flat in January following a marginal expansion at the end of 2019.
Overall, household expenditure fell by just 0.1%, after rising 0.9% in the previous month.
When split by channel, data for the opening month of the year signalled only fractional reductions in both face-to-face spend and online purchases.
“Irish consumer spending was little-changed compared to a year ago in January after last December’s figures were boosted by the timing of Cyber Monday,” stated Sian Jones, Economist at IHS Markit.
