Overall card spend in February up 10% on last year
The latest AIB Spend Trend report shows that Storm Éowyn led to an exceptionally quiet day for spending on Friday 24 January.
AIB said the number of in-store transactions was down 38% compared with an average day.
But after the storm, spending in hardware stores was up 8% in February, with significant increases seen in Mayo, Leitrim and Kerry.
The latest report from AIB also shows that spend in pubs jumped by 32%, with spend in restaurants up 16% in February compared to the previous month.
AIB said this was probably driven by the St Brigid’s Day long weekend, the Six Nations rugby matches and the end of “Dry January”.
It noted that Saturday February 1 was the busiest day for spending so far this year in pubs, which was also the day of the Ireland-England rugby match in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
AIB also noted that spend on EV charging points across the country increased by 12% on a monthly basis and a massive 83% compared to February last year, as more customers turn to greener modes of transport.
The data for the survey was compiled from almost 67 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online in February and has been anonymised and aggregated.
The survey also revealed that overall card spend in February increased by 5% on a monthly basis and by 10% on an annual basis.
Online card spending was a significant driver of this, up 15% year-on-year, reflecting growing trends in online and digital transactions.
AIB said the biggest increase in overall spending month-on-month was in Cavan (+11%), Roscommon (+10%) and Monaghan (+9%).
It also noted that cinema spend peaked for the year so far on Saturday February 15, after the release of “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”, while the best day of the year so far for event ticket sales was Friday January 31, the day “Forbidden Fruit” tickets went on sale.
Adrian Moynihan, Head of Consumer at AIB, said it was very welcome to see overall spending up 5% in February and such strong spending across a number of sectors in February, particularly the hospitality sector which would have had a quiet January after the Christmas festivities.
“The impact of Storm Éowyn was evident on the day it hit but also in the aftermath, with increased spend on hardware and decreased spend on utilities in some of the worst affected areas,” he said.
“It’s particularly heartening to see the significant increase in spend on EV charging over the last 12 months, up 83%, as customers choose more sustainable modes of transport and we continue to transition to a low carbon economy,” he added.
Article Source – Overall card spend in February up 10% on last year – AIB Spend Trend – RTE
