Ecommerce spending in April saw a rapid expansion with +10.7% rise in online sales, the strongest seen in eight months.
According to the latest Visa’s Irish Consumer Spending Index face-to-face expenditure rose at a much slower rate, by just 0.3% year-on-year, which is the slowest growth on this measure since a -2.2% reduction was seen in August 2017.
Spending was up +3.8% year-on-year in April, an improvement on March’s Storm Emma related slowdown of +1.5%.
“April’s return to growth in spending is much welcomed after the slowdown brought on by Storm Emma in March,” said Philip Konopik, Country Manager, Ireland, Visa.
“That said, the rise in consumer spending was modest, with sectors like Food & Beverages impacted by Easter falling earlier in the month this year compared to the same period in 2017.”
Disparity Trend
The report indicated that the continued trend of disparity can be seen again this month between Irish and UK spending.
April’s UK Consumer Spending Index noted an overall decrease in expenditure of -2.0% against Ireland’s +3.8%, with potential factors pointing to relatively subdued UK economic growth and lingering uncertainties towards the outcome of the ongoing Brexit negotiations.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
