Barclays blamed last month’s mixed weather for the first overall decline in card spend since February 2021, with a 0.6% year-on-year fall in transactions over the period from 18 May to 21 June.
Agents, though, experienced a 13.3% leap in transactions – the highest of any of the sectors monitored by Barclays barring unspecified "other travel" – and a 5.5% increase in spend. Airlines saw a 3.2% growth in spend and a 5.7% rise in transactions.
Barclays said the figures reflected holidaymakers settling final balances before their summer break. It added overseas travel was outpacing staycations, as demonstrated by domestic hotels, resorts and accommodation recording a 1.8% decline in spending growth.
Unseasonal cold weather in early June meant retail spending growth fell by 2.6%, with a knock-on effect in the sales of clothes (-7.7%) as consumers held off purchasing summer items.
Supermarket spending growth, meanwhile, saw its first decline in two years (-2.6%), with 65% of respondents to accompanying Barclays’ research saying they were still cutting back on the weekly shop.
The research did, though, find encouraging figures about consumer attitudes. “While Brits maintain a steady approach to managing their budgets, consumer confidence showed signs of recovery compared to the previous month," said Barclays.
“Consumers feel more optimistic about their ability to live within their means (up to 73%) and spend more on non-essential items (56%), while confidence in job security increased four percentage points to 49%.
“Meanwhile, concerns about inflation fell by one percentage point, to 85%, while concerns about the rising cost of fuel eased, as spending on fuel declined -3.2%.”
Experience economy
Karen Johnson, Barclays’ head of retail, said unseasonable weather was having an “undeniable impact” on consumer spending but added it had driven spending on takeaways, digital content and entertainment.
Barclays last month predicted Britons will spend an average of £3,322pp on "experience economy" activities between June and September, although the median estimate is far less at £701.
It found 57% of consumers would rather spend money on a good experience than on material possessions, up five percentage points from 2018.
Barclays previous consumer spending report, covering the period from 20 April to 17 May, recorded a 4.7% year-on-year uptick in consumer spending growth on travel.
