Visa’s Expenditure Index for March, released on Monday 13 April, shows people across Britain are increasingly dining out and going out.
Headline findings
- Household expenditure rises +1.1% year-on-year in March and +1.3% month-on-month
- Strong spending increases at hotels, restaurants and bars (+7.1% on the year) and on recreation, culture
- But spend on clothing and footwear drops for fourth month in a row
Increasing dining and going out
Kevin Jenkins, Managing Director UK & Ireland at Visa Europe commented:
“We’ve seen a gradual improvement in consumer confidence in recent months, driving higher spending on household goods, recreation and eating out. A dry March, coupled with low inflation and real wage increases has continued that trend. People across Britain are increasingly dining out and going out, though spending remains prudent rather than excessive.”
Annabel Fiddes, Economist at Markit said:
“The latest set of Visa Europe: UK Expenditure Index data points to a further steady increase in consumer spending,with growth recorded across all three expenditure measures in March. Consumers spent more on going out to Hotels,Restaurants & Bars, while Recreation & Culture categories also saw solid growth. However, Clothing & Footwear retailers recorded reduced spending for the sixth time in the past seven months.
“Strong growth in total consumer spending adds to evidence that the UK economy is on track for an expansion of GDP of around 0.7% in Q1 according to our estimates. Furthermore, a tightening labour market and weaker inflationary pressures have contributed to a renewed increase in real wages, suggesting that expenditure trends will remain positive as we head intoQ2.”
Visa UK Expenditure Index
Visa UK Expenditure Index uses card transaction data to provide a robust indicator of total consumer expenditure across all payment methods. It is based on spending on all Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards which are used to make an average of over 1.9 billion transactions every quarter and account for £1 in £3 of all UK spending. Working with Markit, these card spending data figures are adjusted for a variety of factors such as card issuance, changing consumer preferences to pay by card rather than cash and inflation. These adjustments mean that these data are distinct from Visa Europe’s business performance and the Index reflects overall consumer spending, not just that on cards.