July HORECA – fastest spend increase

Ireland’s Hotels, Restaurants & Bars sector posted the fastest increase in spending last month, seeing growth of 9.1% year-on-year according to Visa’s Irish Consumer Spending Index which measures expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments).

The Recreation & Culture category also registered a sharp rise in expenditure (up 6.7%).

Overall, Visa’s CSI showed a year-on-year 2.5% increase in expenditure in July, up from 1.8% the previous month.

This was the third month running in which the rate of growth has accelerated, with the latest rise in spending the most marked since March this year.

Growth of eCommerce spending rose for the third successive month in July too, with expenditure up sharply (8.9%) from the same month a year ago. This trend underlines the growth in popularity of online shopping among Irish shoppers, with European Commission research released last month showing that the strongest growth in the number of online shoppers in the EU last year was here in Ireland where there was a 7.8% increase.

In contrast, Face-to-Face expenditure continued to fall, the 10th month running in which a decline has been recorded. The pace of reduction however, at just 0.5% year-on-year in July, was the slowest so far this year.

A solid increase in spending was also recorded in Food & Drink (up 3.2%).