Consumer card spend on travel grew by 24.3% year-on-year in March, the single biggest increase of any of the 13 main sectors tracked by Barclays.
This compares with a 6.6% fall in spend growth on household matters and 3.4% fall in spend growth on clothing. There were modest increases in spend on eating and drinking (5.6%) and entertainment (6.5%).
Spend on grocery shopping increased by 7.1%, but this is far below the Office for National Statistics’ rate of food price inflation, which is currently 18.2%, highlighting one area people appear to be economising.
