Credit and debit card spending jumps by 47% in Ireland

A bustling Henry street following the phased reopening of non-essential retail. Picture: Damien Storan/PA

The amount of credit and debit card spending jumped by 47% in the last year, new figures show.

The spike amounted to an annual increase of €2bn which was recorded in April this year.

However, April 2020 experienced the most significant decline due to the introduction of Covid-19 health restrictions in late March.

It represented the lowest monthly spending level in over four years.

The amount of credit and debit card spending jumped by 47% in the last year, new figures show (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The amount of card spending, including ATM withdrawals, in April this year dropped by 5% compared to March.

Point of sale (PoS) spending was 6% lower in April compared to March, at €5.2bn.

In annual terms, PoS spending was 49% higher than April 2020, while ATM withdrawals remain subdued and fell by 3% compared to the previous month.

The volume of card transactions reduced in April 2021, with the number of transactions falling by €7m when compared to March.

In annual terms, this represents an increase of 51% when compared to April 2020.

Total retail spending fell in April, down 5% from March, and an increase of 32% when compared to April 2020.

Accommodation, hardware, and transport were the sole sectors to record monthly increases of 16%, 5% and 2%, respectively.

Due to the severe contraction in spending at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, all sectors recorded year-on-year increases.

Spending on services fell by 5% from March 2021, with all sectors, except accommodation and transport, decreasing on a monthly basis.

The largest reduction was education which fell by 27% compared to March 2021, however, this was in part due to seasonality in educational spending.

Social spending fell by 6% compared to March 2021, with spending on both restaurants and entertainment falling by 3 and 9% respectively.

Both are significantly higher in annual terms when compared with April 2020.

The latest daily sectoral data to May 24 shows increases in most sectors, with spending in the transport and accommodation sectors showing particularly strong growth, although both sectors remain significantly below their pre-pandemic levels.

Total online expenditure amounted to 2.6 billion euro in April, a decrease of 8% from March and representing an increase of 40% in year-on-year terms.

Online spending accounted for 51% of all PoS spending in April, continuing the reduction from January’s record high of 57%.

Despite in-store spending declining by 97 million euro, the proportion of in-store spending accounted for 49% of total PoS spending, up from 43% in January, despite public health restriction remaining largely unchanged over the intervening months.

The latest daily data shows this trend of increasing in-store spending continuing in May.

When non-essential retail reopened, in-store spending rose sharply and once again became the primary method of card spending.

Monthly data is collected from the largest issuers of credit/debit cards resident in Ireland.