Consumer spend falls in Ireland and Portugal

IRELAND and Portugal were the only European Union member states to register declines in consumer spending during the second quarter of this year, despite an average quarter-by-quarter rise of 2.5% across the EU.

The latest quarterly EU consumer spending barometer from the European arm of credit card giant Visa shows that the first half of this year witnessed the highest growth in consumer spending in the EU for five years.

The growth in the second quarter mirrored the 2.5% increase in the first three months of the year, and stretches to seven the number of consecutive quarters where improvement has been recorded in EU consumer spending.