MNI DATA: June Spending Ignited by World Cup: VISA

--June VISA Overall Spending 0.7% y/y Vs 0.9% y/y in May

By Jai Lakhani

     LONDON (MNI) - The UK's recent consumer spending recovery continued in

June, with the first back-to-back monthly increase in expenditure since early

2017. Anecdotal evidence from UK consumer credit firm Visa attributed the

weather and the World Cup as reasons for the rise in June.

     A pre-cursor to official retail sales data, Visa's UK Consumer Spending

Index pointed to a further increase in household spending in June, Year-on-year,

consumer spending was up 0.7%, only a touch down from May's 0.9% rise. 

     Face-to-face spending grew by 1.1% in June, which although slower than

May's 1.5% increase, marked the first consecutive monthly rise since early 2016.

Although recreation and culture was down 2.5% y/y in June, this was the softest

decline so far in 2018. 

     --THE WORLD CUP EFFECT

     The best performer was the Hotels, Restaurants and Bars sector where growth

reached an 11-month high, rising to a robust 5.4% from 2.1% in May. Food and

drink was second but rose at a rate softer than that seen in May. Nonetheless,

growth of 2% in June and 3.1% in May are pleasing given the 4.6% fall in April.

Given the World Cup and continued warm weather, these sectors performing

strongly is not a surprise.    

     --ONLINE SALES ROSE 

     Online sales growth appears to be on the mend from March and April's drop,

with an increase of 0.4% y/y in June representing a second consecutive month of

growth and in line with with increases in spending through this channel for much

of the past five years. 

     Mark Antipof, Chief Commercial Officer at Visa argued the British public

got into the World Cup spirit in June and this along-side the weather

contributed to June's growth. "June's encouraging data marks the first

back-to-back monthly increase in consumer expenditure since spring 2017," he

said. 

     Antipof also argues against the difficulties high street retailers face.

"It is also noteworthy that face-to-face spending outpace ecommerce spending for

the second month in a row... There has been a lot of talk around the

difficulties facing the UK's high street retailers recently, however the June

data shows that UK shoppers still value the face-to-face experiences available

on their high streets," he added. 

     Visa's UK Consumer Spending Index uses card transaction data based on all

Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards. According to Visa, such spending accounts

for an average 2.3billion transactions every quarter, or roughly one pound in

every three spent in the UK.   

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; +44 203 865 3828; email: jai.lakhani@marketnews.com

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