August spending ‘flatlined’ as consumers dodged summer showers

Credit and debit card spending was muted in August as consumers dodged the wet Irish summer, new data from Bank of Ireland indicates.

Spending in hotels and the broader accommodation sector declined by 4 per cent in August with the total outlay in restaurants down 5 per cent and pubs down 4 per cent compared with July.

Social spending generally fell 8 per cent in August despite a positive move in the previous month, according to Bank of Ireland’s latest Spending Pulse report.

The bank said that lower spending at home did not translate into higher spending abroad as might be expected. Card spending in popular European summer destinations fell including France (- 20 per cent), Portugal (-18 per cent), Italy (-16 per cent) and Greece (-13 per cent).

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One bright spot was spending at tourist attractions, which jumped 19 per cent in August from July, and amusement parks, 11 per cent ahead of the previous month. Typical of the time of year, the back-to-school rush pushed spending in bookshops up by 39 per cent, in shoe shops by 11 per cent and on children’s clothes by 5 per cent.

Overall, card spending volumes were essentially flat between July and August.

“We saw in July that people flocked indoors to escape the wet weather, and hope sprung that a brighter August would spark a spending rebound,” said Jilly Clarkin, head of customer journeys and SME markets at the bank. “However, a mixed month weather wise saw flatlined spending across a variety of sectors, although tourist attractions proving popular and families ‘suited and booted’ the kids for the return to school.”

The picture was “mixed” throughout the summer months, she said, with a drop in June followed by an uptick in July and “a clear levelling off in August”.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) data published earlier this month indicated a 0.8 per cent decline in retail sales in what Met Éireann has, provisionally, called the wettest July on record.

When the booming motor trade was excluded from the data, retail volumes declined by 4 per cent in the month and improved by just a meagre 0.3 per cent in the year to the end of July.